Grandma Coco's Designs

Mittens....er, mittEN, done

2012-02-29T16:14:00.001-05:00

Right one done.....left one..... uh, left.

~ Happy Leap Day!

Capable

2012-02-28T13:07:00.000-05:00

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is "Capable". This led to an awful lot of rumination here in the Kingdom. Some days we feel capable of pretty near anything. Other days we don't. On the doubt-ridden days, wouldn't it be great to have a big old Mary Poppins-esque carpet bag filled to the brim with all those confidence boosting remedies? Things like Elixer of Excellence and Compote of Creativity? How 'bout a big can of Lucky Lozenges? Or a spray bomb of Creative Block Be-Gone? Probably the one most important jar we'd like to find in our bag would be filled with Hope because without that, we'd be goners.

While we decide which path to take

2012-02-27T13:52:00.000-05:00

Time to switch gears while we wait for inspiration for the mittens. That inspiration will come in its own time. It always does. Grandma Coco knows it can never be rushed.

Ah, here's the ticket! A pretty bracelet to take our mind off the conundrum that is THE MITTEN. When we found the glazed porcelain heart bead, we just knew it wanted to be the centrepiece in this bracelet. There's a definite mossy-green mottling going on with this heart bead. (Moss green is currently one of our favourite colours.) Beige/tan cord and turquoise and gold beads make this piece sparkle.

This bracelet measures 7 3/4" long and 3/4" wide. The heart bead itself is about 1" long (to the point).

Since we currently have a rather large inventory of bracelets on hand (and due to the fact that we still find ourselves wanting to make more of them!) we've spent a few fun minutes creating a little online shop over at Big Cartel. So, if you're so inclined, this bracelet could be yours.

CoCoKnots at BigCartel.com

Do you know about Big Cartel? It's like Etsy but for us smaller fish, it has an option that doesn't charge us anything to use their services. We really are small fish. Small fish with a huge bead addiction. We either need to find a way to fund that addiction or get help. We choose the former.

~ Cheers!

Never a straight line

2012-02-26T13:19:00.000-05:00

Like the course of true love, knitting projects rarely run smoothly.....at least in our experience. Sigh.

Cool button, right?

Our keyhole design detail was supposed to fall smack dab in the middle of the back of the hand, just above the wrist. Due to a basic misunderstanding on our part of where the thumb is situated, the keyhole isn't where we'd intended. We went to bed last night thoroughly annoyed.

Grandma Coco was soundly scolding Cheryl because, really, who else should know where her thumb is located? However, when we got up this morning, photographed the offending mitten and then saw it on the monitor, we both thought, "Not so bad, really. In fact, kind of a cool design feature this off-centre keyhole." So, we just have to reverse it for the left-hand mitten.

"Not so fast," said Cheryl. "What about that wonky edging on the liner?" Oh, yeah. That's gonna be a problem alright. Because it's stockinette, it's tending to curl over onto itself. We had thought that a crocheted edging would straighten that right out but.....Nope!

Right now we're thinking of cutting that part off, picking up live stitches and attempting life support with a knitted-on edging. Originally, we had thought something more ruffled anyway. This may be the universe giving us a second chance. That is if the universe cares which it probably doesn't.

Also, that attached I-cord turned out to be way fussy when we were trying to pick up the stitches around the curved keyhole. Additional attention may be required there. Stay tuned.

This morning Grandma Coco slept in a little bit and when she awoke, the lovely Cassie was not in her usual spot on the bed. Hmmmm.....where could she be? Smart little cookie that she is, Cassie was lounging in the one sun-filled spot in the whole house. She'd decided to start her Florida vacation early and as the sun moved throughout the morning, so did Cassie....from sunny spot to sunny spot.

"Hey, where's that waiter with my breakfast?"

~ Winter holiday greetings from the sunny Kingdom of Coco!

Knitting in Real Time

2012-02-24T13:00:00.002-05:00

Knitting is one of those incremental activities. It builds stitch by stitch, over time. If we showed you photos of a knitting project on consecutive days you might be hard pressed to see any progress at all. Sometimes, we confess, we show process photos once we've completed the project. That's the safe approach. It makes us look good.

Showing our knitting in real time, however, is a little more risky. We have an idea where we're headed but we might change our minds as we go along and in fact, we might fall short of our goal. We might, in fact, {gasp!} fail.

Grandma Coco's been a bit tight-lipped about our mittens. At the risk of boring everyone with a shapeless bit of brown, we have decided to go ahead and share today's photo and come clean about the plan. However we've cleverly included a postcard we received this week from Kate as a distraction. Isn't it cute?? A sweet little frog framed by crazy quilting.

The Mittenly Photo showing Kate's Crazy Quilted Postcard

The Mittenly Plan

We envision layered mittens made out of fine wool. (We are working up to the gorgeous Lang Jawoll Baby Alpaca we received last week.) We're using sock weight wool because we love the feel of knitting with fine (thin) wool and delicate needles. We also have a ton of sock weight wool on hand. We think of these as socks for your hands. Two layers will be warm and they'll give us a chance to experiment. So, you already saw the inside layer....the off-white wool liners. They'll have a decorative edging at the cuff. Probably crocheted.

Now, we're on to the top layer. They need to be just slightly larger than the liner so they'll fit over top. We used KnitPicks Bare for the liner with 2.5mm KnitPicks Harmony needles. For the outer mittens we're using Elann's Sock-it-to-me with 3.25 mm. Bryspun needles. We have plans for using up some sock yarn leftovers in textured stitch patterns but for now, these brown ones are plain Jane stockinette. They are sized to fit us. We're not ashamed of this selfish attitude. This way, we always have a hand at the ready to try on the knitting for fitting as we go. So, they'll fit a small lady's hand.... 6 1/4 inches from wrist to the tip of our middle finger and 6 3/4 inches in circumference.

For this particular pair, the outer layer will have a keyhole opening on the back of the hand. There will be attached I-Cord all around this keyhole and the wrist with a button loop and a lovely button we've already found. We're not sure yet if there will be wool embroidery, too. We love the look of wool embroidery and we're just dying to do some but it might be too much for this little pair.

So, for now, dear friends, this is our plan. Like all good plans, it may change. There's plenty of wiggle room.

~ Is it snowing where you are? It is here. Big, soft flakes after an unusually snowless winter. Wishing you snow, if you want some, and none if you don't!

Bland and Boring

2012-02-22T13:28:00.000-05:00

Remember when you were a kid and your mother made you eat your vegetables before you could have dessert? Now when you're all grown up (and should therefore be able to call the shots), ever notice how many times you still have to wait for dessert (metaphorically speaking)? We do.

Partly, it's because we've discovered there's a certain pleasure in the anticipation. Partly, it's because you really do need to build on a strong foundation. Ask the piggies. They know. It's the house that's made of bricks that survives.

Here are our mittens.....the foundation of our project. They needed to be close-fitting and although you can't see it in the photo, they do fit us perfectly. They needed a special little cuff-thingy (technical term) and that's what they have.

Now, bring on the fun!

Linking today to the Needle and Thread Network which is an ever-growing group of Canadian needleworkers. Hop on over and have a look!

~ Cheers!

L'idée du jour

2012-02-19T14:00:00.000-05:00

We keep jotting down new ideas. Some go in our sketchbooks and some in little notebooks we keep with each project. Some go in our calendar. Whatever's handy. We just jot them down as they come to us and most of the time, they hibernate. Sometimes they get lost and never see the light of day again. Sometimes just writing them down is enough to scratch the itch.

And then there are the ideas that keep tickling us. They wake us up at night and whisper to us, "What do you suppose would happen if....?" We've learned these are the keepers, the ones where we can get excited enough to see them through. Duetta was one of those ideas. She's been sitting around for at least a couple of years. Maybe longer. A sketch in a book. Lonely. Patiently waiting her turn.

Today, we're working on another one of those persistent ideas. Here's what we've got so far but this is just the beginning. We have very grand ideas for them.

~ Happy Sunday!

We love presents

2012-02-17T13:14:00.000-05:00

Now that Duetta is safely in the hands of our capable pattern testers (thank you to those of you who offered!) and while we wait patiently for them to do their respective things, we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming. Now, where were we? Ah, yes....

Is Cassie going to take up beading?

We ordered some beads and then we ordered some more beads and then!! A few sweeties who went on vacation all the way to Czechoslovakia for Christmas took the time out of their holiday to buy these for us!! So beautiful. Isn't the net cone just the prettiest way to package beads? And the little cellophane bag with the dainty wispy tie was so pretty we hardly wanted to open it. We can assure you though that we DID open it and that we spent a very happy afternoon sifting through all those beads. We sorted them out and organized all the similar ones by shape and colour. What is it about beads that makes it so pleasant to run your fingers through them?

Look at the felted purse. Oh, it's lovely, too. We can see lots of uses for it.

As well, one of the sweeties is particularly crafty and she made us these:

And they are perfect for holding our special one-of-a-kind beads. There's velcro at the top to close the bag and yet the clear vinyl lets us see exactly what's inside. Before we knew it, we had all our beads organized. And that's rare for us. Grandma Coco's not the organized type.

But that's not all!

Look what else they brought us!! Wool! Two balls of Baby Alpaca to be specific.

Can you hear them? They're whispering, "Gloves!!! We want to be gloves!"

Who are we to deny them?

~ XOXO

Duetta

2012-02-15T13:40:00.000-05:00

It's Wednesday again. And we're trying really hard to keep the screaming caps and the exclamation marks to a minimum. But today's the day we promised we'd show you our newest design. We're so excited. Never has anything come together so easily, so well and so close to our vision.

This is Duetta ...... where quilting and knitting come together to make beautiful music.......and a pretty darling little baby sweater. The knitting brings softness, drape and a comfortable fit while the quilted yoke lends structure and beauty.

We've done it with an appliquéd heart design and we've done a paper-pieced chevron design. Of course, the peek we showed last week was this crazy quilted version. We think you could do just about anything on that yoke. Cross-stitch, maybe? Embroidery, for sure.

The knitting's done in fingering weight yarn which could include sock yarn. The quilting requires less than a fat quarter of fabric. Duetta is a very simple design that assumes only a basic level of knitting and quilting skills. It is sized for 9 - 12 months.

The hardest part is probably finding a cute baby worthy of such a lovely sweater. But, we've got that covered, too. How lucky are we?

Grandma Coco has already tested the pattern and according to our friend Kate, that means it's ready for Beta testing (which is where an objective third party tries it out). We are therefore looking for a couple of people who would like to test drive it. We'd like someone to try the appliquéd hearts version and someone to make the paper-pieced chevron design and report back on their experience. Ideally, we'd like that to be done in the next month. So, if you'd like to make a sweet baby sweater, please contact us at: grandmacocosdesigns (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll send you out the Beta version of Duetta.

This being Wednesday, we're linking to the Needle and Thread Network.
Be sure to click on over and see what the other Canadian needleworkers are up to.

~ Happy Day!

A Valentine for Mr. Coco

2012-02-14T13:14:00.002-05:00

We suppose we could have chosen flowers or candy....or even cookies....but in the end, there's nothing like a good pair of wool socks to keep a man happy. These socks have been in the works for a while now and Mr. Coco's had his eye on them all this time. For one thing, they're grey and that's pretty close to his favourite colour (which is black!). He's the original Mr. Conservative that way. For another thing, the pattern stitch is very classic ....not lacey or froofroo at all. (We're not actually sure that's the correct spelling of "froofroo" but we think everyone will understand.)

Just look at that patterned heel!

From our point of view, these socks were very fun to knit. There's a mock cable thing going on that keeps the knitting going. And the heel flap!!! Oh, the heel flap. It's not boring at all. It showcases that fancy stitch pattern all the way down to the ground.

Here they are as we headed toward the heel of the second sock.

We used Lang Jawoll Magic Superwash and once again had tremendous luck with the stripes matching from one sock to the other. It's a really lovely wool to knit with and we have one more ball in our stash. It's beige to browns so that will be another pair of great socks to look forward to.

We want to thank our friend Kate for test knitting this pattern.

If you'd like to knit your man (or maybe yourself!) a pair of CoCoMan socks for Valentine's Day or any other occasion, we've loaded the pattern into our Ravelry store where it's available for immediate download for only a toonie! (That's two dollars for all you non-residents of the Kingdom of Coco.)

CoCoMan Socks Pattern

$2.00

~ Happy Valentine's Day!

PS...Only one more sleep until we unveil our new project!!

In anticipation

2012-02-13T13:26:00.000-05:00

CoCoCookies © Cheryl Coville 2012

Yeah, yeah, we know we're a day early but it's never too early

(or too late!) to say "I love you", is it?

Look, Ma! We're crazy quilting!

2012-02-08T13:08:00.000-05:00

We are SO close to being ready to show our top-secret project! It's very exciting but for now all we dare show is this little pink peek. We never really tried to crazy quilt before but with Kathy for inspiration, we've been dying to try. This little project provided the perfect opportunity. We're linking up with the Needle and Thread Network because this is what we're working on this Wednesday. We hope by next Wednesday we'll be ready to show (and tell) all. Be sure to come back for the big reveal. For now check out what other Canadian crafters are up to.

~ Mysteriously yours,

February Cat Nap

2012-02-06T14:22:00.000-05:00

.......which looks a lot like a January cat nap

or a June cat nap or a .......

~ Wishing everyone a sun-drenched snooze today,

Best Cookie Recipe EVER!!

2012-02-03T13:25:00.002-05:00

First of all, Grandma Coco would like to apologize to anyone who receives these blog updates via email. We've discovered that sometimes these updates look a little bit like a dog's breakfast. We thought Blogger's tendency to mangle our prose might be the price to pay for the ease of getting our oh-so-valuable insights delivered right to your inbox. Fortunately, Maria (editor of The Quilt Pattern Magazine) has lots more experience than we do with such things and she has tipped us off as to what the problem might be. We will endeavour to do better in future.

For right now, what better way to make amends than with cookies? Here's the best recipe we've found yet for cookies you can roll out and cut and decorate, if you're so inclined. We'd credit the original creator except we don't remember where we got the recipe and besides, we sort of changed it up a bit....as we are wont to do. Surprise, surprise.

Brown Sugar Oatmeal Shortbread Cookies

1 3/4 cups flour
3 Tbsp corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup butter-flavoured Crisco
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

Mix them up in the usual way.....Cream the Crisco and brown sugar. Mix all the other ingredients together and add them to the Crisco and brown sugar. Leave the dough to chill a while in the fridge. Roll out, cut and bake on parchment paper at about 325F until they start to look golden brown around the edges. We found they were a tad fragile straight out of the oven so be sure to let them sit for a moment on the cookie sheet before you try to move them to a rack.

~ Low Cal Cookies for EVERYONE!!!

Happy G-Day!

2012-02-02T04:41:00.000-05:00

One of the great advantages of having your own kingdom isthat you get to make the rules. Grandma Coco loves this aspect of kingdomownership. You get to decide the calendar, too, and you get to dictate whichholidays make the cut. Today marks one of the highlights of the Kingdom of Cococalendar. Ta-Da!!!

Happy Groundhog Day!!!

Oh, you can have your Christmases and your Hallowe’ens withthe malls all tarted up for weeks in advance with stuff to do and stuff to buyand stuff to wrap up and give. No, we think Groundhog Day is one of thebetter holidays. A saner holiday. No real advance planning to worry about. Nolists. No hype. Martha Stewart’s not much interested in it so there’s no onesetting the bar absurdly high.

We recognize it has a fairly weak backstory, to wit,according to tradition, the lowly groundhog will awaken from his slumber andpoke his head outside his burrow. If he sees his shadow (ie, if the sun isshining) legend has it he’ll be scared back into his snug little home where he’llsleep for another 6 weeks until spring arrives. On the other hand, if it’scloudy, there won’t be a shadow for him to see, will there? Either way, we’llstill have to wait 6 weeks for spring. Lame, right?

But sort of sweet at the same time. And harmless. And in a climate as bleak as February in theKingdom of Coco, we’ll take any excuse for a holiday.

So, it is our pleasure on this winter morning to saluteGordy Groundhog (Official Groundhog of the Realm) and thank him for setting hisalarm clock for such an early hour and for being such a good sport. We imaginehim emerging from his cozy abode, squinting and shielding his winter weary eyesfrom the sun’s glare dazzling off the snow, and thinking, “I don’t know aboutyou, but I’m going back to bed.”

Now, that’s a holiday Grandma Coco can really get behind.

~ Happy Groundhog Day to all!

Shhh........Top Secret

2012-01-31T17:25:00.000-05:00

We're working on something secret.....TOP secret. It's pretty exciting and it's taking up all of our time. So.....that means, there isn't much to show today. Sorry. However, since we know you didn't come here just to hear that, we'll attempt to divert you by showing you what the mail man brought. Actually, it's what the mail couple brought. Out here in the middle of nowhere, we have a lovely couple who drive the icy roads, risking their lives to put important things into our big ol' mailbox. Look what they left for us today!

Aren't they beautiful? They were handmade by http://bastillebleu.com/ We are very excited about these beads. We think they'll look wonderful as the closure beads for our micro macramé bracelets. We really had to restrain ourselves and only order 2....this time. :)

And finally, here's what the world looked like here in the Kingdom yesterday morning.....

Do you see a cookie in there?

~ Hoping everyone's got something exciting to work on.....

January Sunset

2012-01-28T14:51:00.000-05:00

We have hesitated to post this cookie. We keep thinking it's maybe not the fairest cookie in the land BUT there's something we really like about it. Maybe it's the colours or maybe it's the shine... Or maybe we're just delusional. :)

We're still experimenting after all. The Birds-at-our-feeder cookies were iced with a new recipe. It's Cookie Crazie's recipe. Sort of. After the tooth-crunching experience with the Snow Dudes, we decided we'd like to try a recipe that didn't include egg whites. Cookie Crazie's recipe is simple. Where we think we may have messed up is that she says if the icing is too thick, you should add more corn syrup. When we mixed it up, we thought water might be the quicker thinner. And it was! However, the icing dried with weird cloudy patches. And now we know. Cookie Crazie said "corn syrup" for a reason. When will we learn? (That's rhetorical.) January Sunset is iced with corn syrup enhanced icing.

If you're into cookie decorating, you can find her recipe here. And, even if you're not a cookier (how cool is that for a job description?) take at look at her cat cookies. (Scroll to the end of the post.) They are adorable!!!

~ Live and learn!

Birds-at-our-feeder cookies

2012-01-26T16:52:00.000-05:00

We get an awful big crowd at our bird feeder. Big birds,little birds. The belligerent and the meek, the flashy and the drab. Rowdy and talking smack, they’re araucous bunch who really like to party. They jostle for position and aren’tafraid to mix it up by times. We guess their little lives depend on it. Butsometimes they make a lot of noise. Especially the Blue Jays. They have thisloud and obnoxious squawk which always sounds to us like…

As we’ve already noted, we love this photo we took a fewweeks ago. It’s just so January. We tried to isolate which colours evoke thefeeling of January and we came up with this palette. We made our birdiesketches and copied them so we could try out different colour arrangements.

We made templates from our sketches by covering both sidesof the paper with heavy packing tape and then cutting carefully on the lines.

This makes fairly sturdy, grease impervious templates which we used to tracearound, on the cookie tops with our handy-dandy food colouring markers. And, yes, originally we thought they'd all be wearing toques and scarves until we came to our senses and remembered simple is better.

So far,so good. We drew in the extra lines by hand, piped on the icing and Bob’s yeruncle!

Birds-at-our-feeder CoCoCookies © Cheryl Coville 2012

We wouldn’t like anyone to think badly of our birds. Here,in the Kingdom of Coco not every bird is rude. We have at least one polite fellow.

These are the first cookies we made with the beautiful copper cookie cutter we won from LilaLoa's giveaway. We don't think we did it justice but we'll keep trying.

Grandma Coco would like to say "Hi!" to Arwen who, we are told, loves birds AND cookies!

~ Best birdie wishes to all!

Winter Watermelon

2012-01-25T13:28:00.000-05:00

Nah....not the fruit. It's way too cold in the Kingdom for watermelon today. But this bracelet makes us think of watermelon. Pretty coral red and bright green. Not our usual palette but then, again, our usual palette is shades of grey....pencil, that is. The beads and the bracelets and the COOKIES! They all let us play with colour.

This is the first bracelet we've made without the loop and button/bead closure. We've been playing with wire work and we made this little clasp with copper wire. We really like how it turned out.

Imagine our surprise. This clasp seems pretty secure. You have to squeeze the 2 loops together in order for the second ring to slip out of the hook. Very cool. And total luck.

~ Wishing you a lucky day!

PS.....Monika reminded us that although beaded micro macramé isn't quilting or knitting, it is still done with thread so Grandma Coco is thrilled to link up to the Needle and Thread Network for the Work in Progress Wednesday post. If you'd like to see what other Canadian craftspeople are up to, just click on the link.

Twirl

2012-01-22T13:14:00.000-05:00

Our friend, Kate, has got us thinking about mice. Country mice and city mice, to be exact. And about how we're all one or the other when it comes right down to it. She has this theory that the important thing is to be content with who we are, wherever we are. When the Illustration Friday prompt was announced ("Twirl"), this is the image that sprang to mind.

We're not sure if this little dancer is a country mouse or a city mouse but she seems happy.

By the way, after we drew it and scanned it and looked at it on the monitor, we realized we hadn't drawn a tail for her and we know from our experience as country mice ourselves that real mice have surprisingly long tails. We've decided to tell you this: You know how all those cute little ballerinas wind their long hair up into neat buns? Well, that's what mouse ballerinas do with their tails. You know, to get them out of the way.

(But, really, who're we kidding? We just forgot to draw one.)

~ xoxo

How time flies!

2012-01-21T15:09:00.000-05:00

About a year ago, we celebrated the launch of a new quiltmagazine, The Quilt Pattern Magazine. A whole yearago!

So many magazines start out with such good intentions onlyto fizzle under the pressure of a monthly publication schedule. It’s one thingto start off with a bang and quite another to hang in there for the long haul.

We’ve been pleased to see that The Quilt Pattern Magazineseems to be one of the long-haulers.

Double Wedding Ring Made Easy © Cheryl Coville 2011

We need to say right up front that we’re a bit biased onthis one. The Quilt Pattern Magazine published our Double Wedding Ring MadeEasy workshop this past year. They were very rigorous in the way they testedthe pattern and they made sure all the directions were complete and accurate.We didn’t mind the scrutiny since we wanted it to be perfect, too. We haveheard horror stories from other designers with other magazines who had theirpatterns “edited” to fit in the space provided by leaving out important bits ofinformation. This didn’t happen with QPM.

As well, they’ve asked us to write a little piece now andthen for the magazine. We’ll definitely let you know when that happens.

The Quilt Pattern Magazine is put out by a very friendly andprofessional group of people. If you’re a designer, it’s a magazine we candefinitely recommend. Send them your idea and you’ll get a quick reply.

If you’re a quilter, we think you’ll find lots ofinspiration in this online magazine.

Happy 1^st Birthday, Quilt Pattern Magazine! Wewish you continued success.

The ultimate staycation

2012-01-20T13:33:00.000-05:00

Still Life With Oranges and Cassie

Year of the Dragon!

2012-01-18T16:36:00.000-05:00

We're trading Year of the Dragon postcards over at the Postcard Cottage Yahoo group. We dropped them off this morning at our local postal outlet. The Kingdom of Coco post office is tiny but the lady who works there is very sweet. Just look at the stamps she chose for our cards.

Sweet, right? We didn't even know there was a Year of the Dragon stamp!! Apparently, it was just released last week. What timing! What luck!

We're linking up to The Needle and Thread Network for Works in Progress Wednesday. Be sure and pop over there to see what other Canadian needle crafters are working on.

Happy Year of the Dragon to everyone!

What is it they say about lightning?

2012-01-17T13:44:00.000-05:00

Seems to us that the general concensus is that lightning never strikes twice in the same spot. However, Grandma Coco thinks we have proof otherwise. Remember the green striped socks from last fall? The ones that turned out to be pretty much identical twins through complete serendipity? Well....

This is the same yarn, Lang Jawoll Magic Superwash which we now believe really IS magic(!) because we are knitting a completely different sock. Different stitch pattern. Different leg length! And most important of all....once again, we did not set out with any intention of making them match.

But look! They do seem to be matching up, don't they? For now.....

We think we've made it absolutely clear in the past that we don't mind the odd fraternal twins socks. This pair that we made for our brother is a pretty good example of that. At New Year's when he visited, we looked down to see one fluorescent purple toe shining out from under his pant leg. The other was more quietly visible. That's what happens when you knit 2 socks from one skein of wool. You pays your nickel and you takes your chances.

But TWO freakishly matched sock experiences in one liftetime?? Maybe we should have been buying those lottery tickets all along.

And, speaking of luck ..... we've had some very good luck at our bird feeder. This morning, we noticed Mrs. Cardinal in the tree and the Mister at the feeder. It's so heartening to see his bright red self at our feeder slugging it out with all the other birds. Photos to follow if we can get close enough. They're very skittish. However, we have a rather robust crowd of Mourning Doves this year and here's their picture because they are really very bold. Cassie would dearly like to wipe the grins off their smug little faces.

Ah, live and let live, little Cassie!

~ Wishing you all a very lucky day, too!

Prima Donna

2012-01-16T13:08:00.003-05:00

We've been spending inordinate amounts of time trolling bead stores on the internet lusting after the most beautiful of beads. A year ago, we would have laughed if anyone had suggested we'd be so infatuated with beads. But, it's true.

We love them all.

One Perfect Bead

Take this one, for instance. Isn't it fabulous? We found it in the most unlikely of places. The Dollar Store. Yup. Can you believe it? Three of them in a package for $1. We had to pinch ourselves.

We wanted to make a bracelet that would allow it to shine the way it was meant to shine. The centre of attention.

The prima donna

~ xoxo

Squirelly stuff

2012-01-15T13:02:00.001-05:00

The explanation: Cassie has a squirrel. It's stuffed. She loves to carry it around and torment it.

The drawing: It's been such a long time since we followed an Illustration Friday prompt. Too long. This week it's ..... "Prepare"

Grandma Coco isn't really crazy about travelling but if she has to, she wants to be prepared. Well prepared.

May you have everything you need, wherever you are....

Let it snow!!!

2012-01-13T12:12:00.000-05:00

The freezing rain of yesterday gave way to plain ol' rain overnight. And now it's moved on to snow, snow, snow. That means there's probably a good layer of the slippery stuff under the snow that's falling now.

One lonely birdie ... but the others are just camera shy. A few minutes later and this was a hive of activity once again.

But we don't mind 'cuz we've got everything we need here in the Kingdom and we don't have to go anywhere. We've got food and drink and wool and beads and paper and icing sugar and ... well, you get the idea. If we don't have it, we don't need it.

So, we say, "Let it snow!"

CocoCookies!

We hope your larder is full, too!

xoxo

Freezing Rain Warning

2012-01-12T12:50:00.002-05:00

If there's one thing that strikes fear into the hearts of those of us who live in the Kingdom of Coco, it's a freezing rain warning. Rain, we can deal with. Snow, not so great, but we can deal with that, too. Freezing rain? All bets are off. Driving becomes difficult and if the ice continues for long enough we can lose our power as we did during the Great Ice Storm of 1998.

This is what it looks like outside our door this morning.

And this is what it looks like inside.

Ice? What ice?

So, if you'll excuse us, we're off to paint some cookies.

~ Drive carefully, everybody.....

What the mailman brought

2012-01-10T12:56:00.000-05:00

We have a big ol' mailbox that sits at the road. He's big and sturdy. He replaced a wimpier fellow a year or so ago who wasn't up to the challenge of snowplows pushing big waves of heavy snow and boys in cars playing mailbox baseball. This fellow's a heavyweight with a door that closes and a magnet to keep it closed. And he's BIG!!! Lots of room inside for lots of mail. And, yesterday, we were very glad for all that room because WE GOT MAIL!!!

See how prettily they wrapped it with blue tissue!

We are almost embarrassed to say that even though we are newbies to the world of cookie decorating, Lady Luck shone on us and we won a beautiful copper cookie cutter by Copper Gifts from a giveaway on LilaLoa's blog. We almost didn't enter because there were bound to be lots of other people in the running.....247 to be exact...and there were only 3 cookie cutters to be won. But we did enter! And then we had to wait impatiently for the mailman to deliver our cutter but it was worth the wait! It's beautiful. It's about 4 inches square.....now THAT'S a cookie! And copper!!! We don't own any copper cooking utensils. This is the first. Oh, my! We can hardly wait to try it out.

We need to thank Karen, too, because she told us a while ago that we were showing up as a No Reply Blogger when we left comments. Huh?? If you're leaving comments on people's blogs and you're not getting answers (or winning stuff!) you should probably check to make sure you've left the correct trail of breadcrumbs for the blogger to get back to you. We sure wouldn't have won this if LilaLoa couldn't have gotten back to us. And that would have been a crying shame. So, thank you to Karen as well.

But that's not all. Our mailbox is so big we also found another box inside. This was an order from Vanilla Food Company. We were a little vexed last week when we went back to Michael's. We wanted to buy more black food colouring pens but only black. Not the assortment we bought the first time around because we're going to run out of black ink long before we run out of red and brown and blue. The pretty lady who works there assured us the pens don't come singly and that was like waving a red flag in front of a bull! Grandma Coco set out to see for herself. And of course, the pretty lady was right. That Michael's store doesn't sell them singly but Vanilla Food Company does!!!! So there! It's a Canadian mail order company and we placed our little order Thursday evening and paid by Paypal. (We love Paypal, especially when we don't really know the company we're dealing with.) Friday morning, we got an email that our order had shipped and that's a really good public relations gesture that more shops should pay attention to. Our package arrived on Monday morning!!! That's pretty fast. We are thrilled with the service and will definitely order from them again. Those squeezy bottles are for flooding icing, just in case you were wondering.

Cassie wasn't wondering. She's pretty much seen it all.

~ Wishing you a full mailbox (but no bills!),

What's green and shiny?

2012-01-09T13:18:00.000-05:00

More micro macramé. This stuff is addictive.

What are we going to do with all the bracelets and cookies piling up around here? The drawings are bad enough but they can be squirelled away between the pages of our sketchbook.

Guess we're just lucky we haven't become interested in something like bronze sculpture. :) Yet.

~Best wishes,

PS Thanks to Maria for confirming our new birds are Goldfinches.

January days

2012-01-08T12:51:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, when we were talking cookies, we realized we never did share our Santa cookies. So, as we enjoy our post-Christmas clean-up of the goodies (a dirty job that someone must do) with a homemade latte, we snapped a quick photo just for you. And no, for any of you who are wondering, he's crunchy but not bulletproof.

This January has been a wee bit unusual weather-wise in many parts of Canada and, here in the Kingdom, we're no exception. Lots of birds have found our homemade feeder. We used to have a jim-dandy commercial one but the high winds last April took it out and we've been forced to improvise. In fact though, we think this cranberry juice jug makes a better feeder than most. It doesn't allow the moisture to get inside and freeze up all the seeds. We just remove the cap and pour in the seeds and wait for our feathered friends to show up. We have chickadees, a couple of different kinds of sparrows, 2 different types of woodpeckers, nuthatches, juncos, bluejays, mourning doves and as of yesterday, this guy......

Could they be goldfinches in their drabber winter wear? or snow buntings? We're not really sure. We only know we never had these birds here at our feeder before yesterday. And that's in 25 years of feeding in the same spot. If anyone has an opinion, please leave it in the comments. We'd appreciate knowing what they're called. We have counted 5 of them at the same time. We do see goldfinches in the summer, but never before through the winter. We're still waiting for the cardinals to make an appearance. They are usually very shy, but we do see them from time to time, mostly at dusk or dawn. For some reason we rarely see a squirrel, maybe because there are supposed to be fishers out and about, but one memorable year, we had RATS!!! at our feeder. That certainly took some of the fun out of our bird feeding activities.

Yesterday, as the sun slipped below the cloud cover and prepared to set, the light changed suddenly and produced the most beautiful colours. We grabbed the camera and raced to capture it. These photos just scream "January!" for us.

"January! January! January!!!!

Best wishes from the Kingdom of Coco!!

All in the name of science

2012-01-07T11:47:00.000-05:00

Last night, in the interest of culling the herd to make room for the new arrivals, it was one of the Snow Dudes' turn to...you know....take one for the team. Imagine our surprise when it soon became apparent that this dude wasn't going down without a fight. He was almost bullet-proof!! While the Christmas Birds and the Santas had a pleasantly sweet and crunchy layer of icing, this Dude's coating was pretty much inpenetrable. Since Mr. Coco still has all his own teeth (and we'd like to keep it that way!) we decided some detective work was in order.

So, in the name of science... (Karen and Paula, you may just want to look away)...... Please don't call the SPCC (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Cookies). Snow Dude gave his life for science. There is no higher calling.

We know we covered the cookie with a base coat of pale turquoise Royal Icing which we distinctly remember we spread with a spatula (as opposed to flooding them with a runnier consistency of icing). Then, we piped and flooded the white layer of the snowman's body and THEN we put the scarf details on top. We were so pleased with the way the scarf stood out. So sculptural. So arty. Now, we think we just used too many layers of too stiff icing. That resulted in a rock hard finish. We could mail these babies to Zanzibar and they'd arrive all in one piece!!!

There is a reason that the Great Masters painted with egg tempera. That stuff lasts. And if you ever tried to wash dried egg off a plate, you'll know what we mean. Royal Icing is made from egg whites. We use those pasteurized ones in the carton just to be safe.

One of the problems with book learnin' is that there's no one to step in and tell you when you've made a big goof. You have to find out on your own, through trial and error and experimentation. With luck, you find out before someone breaks a tooth.

And now, we know. Good thing the seventeen cookies we iced yesterday are only going to be painted.

A fresh start

2012-01-06T14:53:00.002-05:00

September always seems like the start of a new year to us but Grandma Coco also subscribes to the conventional idea that everything starts anew with the beginning of the calendar new year, too. So, when we flip to the first day of the first month, we get this feeling that anything could happen.

We can forget the misfortunes and disappointments of 2011 and look forward to the possibilities of 2012.

We get a second chance..... A fresh start...... A blank slate on which to write a new and better story. We can be better people, if we choose. We can do more and complain less. Yes, even Grandma Coco could aim for that.

So, last night, after Mr. Hydro reduced his rates, as he does each evening at precisely 7pm in the Kingdom of Coco, we turned on our oven and baked a tray of gingerbread rounds. Today, we gave them their pristine base coats and here they sit.....seventeen perfect, blank canvases. Just imagine what stories they will tell.

Pat has his Vanna ...

2012-01-05T12:57:00.000-05:00

... we have our Cassie! And now, our lovely assistant will model some delightful new pieces from our 2012 feline collection.....

We thought this one was kinda loud. In fact, we were sort of disappointed in it until our brother dropped by at New Year's and proclaimed it was exactly the kind of thing a belly dancer would wear. Why, yes! That's exactly what we were going for. Thank you.

Oooh, look! Stained glass! You're getting sleepy.....sleepier......ZZZZZZZZ

Remember the little beauty on the bottom? This is the one that ended in a rat's nest of tangled cords. We had thought we'd just cut out the beads and move on but when we looked more closely all that was really wrong was that one of the cords had come unplied. So, we twisted it back up, glued the end and carried on.

Moving on

2012-01-03T15:37:00.000-05:00

Grandma Coco was touched by all the people who sympathized with her massive disappointment of yesterday. Seems like everybody's been there and done that. First thing this morning, with the world all new and frosty and with bright clear sunshine pouring through our windows and with hope in our heart, we went back into the studio and .... nope! still doggy-doo. We will do as suggested though. We'll put that puppy away and just let him hibernate a bit and consider his options. We did not touch a match to him as we might have done years ago. No, we're older and wiser now and realize that every dog does have his day.

However.......... This day is Fun With Cookies Day!!! We've been trying to find our very own take on this cookie decorating adventure. Today, we decided to play. Just play. And not to worry about what might come out of it. Mr. Coco will take care of the mistakes.

We've been fascinated by a couple of cookie decorators who might rightly be called watercolour painters because they paint on a cookie with thinned food colouring in a water colour style. Once Upon a Plate makes delightfully delicate scenes and Arty McGoo just paints wonderful designs. Period. You should go check them out. They look like such fun....but alas, we're not water colourists.

We decided to stick to our strengths and we used fine edible ink markers to draw our designs and water colour washes to colour them. We think they're pretty nifty.....and certainly worthy of more investigation.

Yes, it`s the Blow Your Own Horn Lady again. In the Kingdom of Coco, we recycle.

Have a fun-filled day!

Question for the ages

2012-01-02T13:02:00.000-05:00

Why, why, why? We went into our sewing room this morning intent on picking up where we left off on our knitting themed quilt. We were so into it last winter. We knew just where we were going with it. It seemed SUCH A GREAT IDEA!!! New. Fresh. Exciting, even.

Then we were side-lined by the eye thing and we had to dismantle our studio so house guests could actually sleep in there and then other projects beckoned and FINALLY, after that 6-month hiatus, TODAY we get back to it...only to find that it's something we hope we wouldn't step in if we were walking down the street. If you get our drift.

How is it that the brilliant piece you put down one day wakes up the next as such a monstrous dud?

Out with the old

2011-12-31T14:03:00.000-05:00

Here we are again at the last day of a year. You know what they say.... if you don't know your history, you're doomed to repeat it. Well, there are bits of this past year we'd rather not repeat (like the 6th Nerve Palsy whose possible return sits heavily on our minds) but there were also really terrific things that happened, too.

We saw the happy marriage of the youngest Coconut and the birth of a precious GreatCocoNiece and the engagement of the oldest Coconut. We visited and were visited by lots of extended family and reconnected with our cousins-in-the-Big City. We traveled. Not a lot, but enough! We're pleased to continue long-standing friendships and also to have made new, good friends, both in person and virtually through this blog.

As well, we've picked up a couple of new interests. Last year, on this day, if anyone had predicted we'd be fascinated by cookie decorating, we would have told them they were out of their everlovin' minds! But here we are, up to our snouts in Royal Icing.....and loving it.

And the beads!!! Who could have forseen the micro macramé addiction?

Yes, it's been an interesting year and if we turn and look toward 2012, who could possibly predict what might be waiting for us?

We can only hope there's something good in store for all of us.

Happy New Year, everyone!

PS Does the cookie image look familiar?

It's a sugary take on this:

Tamara's Papa Bear Sampler Scarf

2011-12-29T20:55:00.000-05:00

Now, isn't this just the manliest Papa Bear Sampler Scarf yet???

Tamara sent us this photo.

She used just over 1 ball of On Your Toes 4 ply sock yarn with aloe vera.

What great colours. Although, you know, we think any lady would love it, too.

Bird envy

2011-12-27T14:05:00.000-05:00

A very common, not exotic, well-adjusted woodpecker.

Karen wrote about her fancy, schmancy woodpecker just before Christmas. He's exotic. And flashy. A Come-From-Away woodpecker. He probably squawks with one of those sexy foreign accents and drives all the girl birdies wild. He's certainly colourful with his red-feathered detail but we'd like everyone to know we have a woodpecker, too. He's just more modest. Not flamboyant at all. He doesn't need to be. He's very secure. He wonders what's up with the weird feeder though.

Beware the Boxing Day Crowds

2011-12-26T15:21:00.001-05:00

We've had an unusual reaction to our cookies. Oh, Karen tried to warn us but would we listen? No.

We put out plates and platters and trays of our cookies. We smile and say, "Cookie?" People oohhh! and ahhhh! but there are very few takers.

They're delicious. Really. And, we're very fastidious in our preparation so we're pretty sure it's not a hygiene concern. No, it seems to be more of a "they're too pretty to eat" problem. Shoot! We keep trying to tell people we have to see these consumed so we can make more but it makes little impact. In fact, the only people who actually eat these things are very small children and certain varieties of men ... most notably, the kind who carve out a big hunk of the cake you're planning to take to your potluck tomorrow and then act all surprised and wounded when you threaten to divorce them.

We can assure you we have photographed each and every cookie with the greatest of care. Its place in history is well documented. There is absolutely no reason NOT to eat them before they go green with mould and heavy with dust and the odd stray cat hair.

Grandma Coco has decided she'll have to take extreme measures. When you're out in the malls today, braving the crowds, be sure and guard your shopping bags.

Gifts

2011-12-25T14:19:00.000-05:00

Recently, we spoke (at length, as usual) about giving gifts. Today seems an appropriate time to think about receiving gifts. The first, and most important thing to remember is that not all gifts come wrapped in pretty paper and sometimes, it's a question of recognizing a gift when it comes our way.

This Christmas, as we reflect on the past year, we are grateful for the gift of friendship. We have met some really kind and wonderful people through this blog. And all of them are wonderfully talented as well. Some are great quilters. Some talented knitters. Many are artists who work in a whole host of media. Some realize they're artists and some don't know it yet. Some have a talent for friendship and we may value them most of all.

This Christmas, we are grateful for the gift of eyesight since we spent the summer without it.

This Christmas, we are grateful for something silly that the giver probably didn't even know she gave us (except that we already wrote and thanked her). We're allergic to milk (little known fact) and we haven't tasted a peanut butter cup in over 20 years. We've been able to work around lots of other treats so we can enjoy some of what "normal" people enjoy but never those peanut butter cups. Not, that is, until Paula (the Vanilla Bean Baker) offered up her recipe on her blog this week. She says it comes from Joy of Baking and we were able to tweak it very simply by substituting milk-free margerine and fancy dark chocolate. Such a gift!

This Christmas, we are grateful for the gift of our dad's company. This is his 90th Christmas Day and that's a lot of Christmases. We will treasure it.

The Cocos, Christmas 2011

And last, but by no means least, this Christmas, we are grateful for the gift of love and companionship that we are given every single day. That's the gift that makes it Christmas all year long. May every one of you be so blessed.

A cautionary tale in sugar and spice

2011-12-23T13:16:00.002-05:00

Grandma Coco would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to eat and drink responsibly this holiday season

lest this be your fate ........

Christmas Cookies? Check

2011-12-21T13:04:00.000-05:00

This is the last of the cookies we planned to decorate for The Big Day. We think they're the best of the lot. We saw a tiny photo of some Christmas birdie lights-on-sticks thingies in a weekend flyer somewhere. It might have been Canadian Tire. Maybe Home Hardware. Anyway, those birds just stuck in our imagination and after a while, they just begged to be drawn.....Grandma Coco-style in royal icing.

Another finished scarf

2011-12-19T15:13:00.000-05:00

Not by us!! No! We've been goofin' off baking cookies (as you well know).

No, this Papa Bear Sampler Scarf is lilaclinny's (That's her Ravelry name.) She made it from Teksrena yarn which is new to us. The yarn description says it's similar to Kauni and comes from Lithuania. It's a lovely gradation from red to black. We think it suits the pattern perfectly. lilaclinny reports that she stopped at the 10th pattern because the scarf was plenty long. She sent it to school with her son as a gift for his teacher. Lucky guy! (or gal!)

Just a reminder....all the parts of the pattern can still be found on this blog (for free!). We've also prepared one .PDF that corrals the whole pattern into one manageable file. All the pattern stitches are written out as well as charted. It's available through our Ravelry store for $3.50.

If you send us a photo of your finished Papa Bear Sampler Scarf to show on this blog ....no matter when (we'll be here!)..... we'll send you a file for a gift tag as our thank you.

Another gift box

2011-12-19T11:31:00.000-05:00

It's probably obvious that Grandma CoCo likes fancy, fussy gift boxes. Often, we get more excited over packaging than what's inside. Does that make us shallow?

We had one of these on hand and ...

Oh, the possibilities!

Our doughnut cutter (why do we have one of these? we never deep fry) turns out to be the perfect size for cookies that could stack inside.

Now, who to give them to?

What kind of person are you?

2011-12-18T14:20:00.001-05:00

Are you a dog person?

Or a cat person?

The world seems to be made up of one or the other. Grandma Coco is definitely both.

Once she sets her mind to a task, she is also doggedly determined. Ha!Ha! With her learner's permit in hand, she decided to make a second run at sugar run-outs. Kittens and puppies this time. As Monika was quick to notice, these are like icing appliqués. We're sure only a quilter would make that connection. They were made to sit on a 2 inch x 4 inch cookie. Not delicate by any stretch. More of a man-sized cookie.

We made the puppies first and used parchment paper as the base. Parchment paper won't tape down. It keeps curling up and that produced the first of our problems.....they're not really level.

Secondly, the cookies aren't level either so some of the puppy feet are sticking out of the base coat. That makes them pretty fragile.

The kittens were made on waxed paper which will tape down but we still had the unlevel cookie complication. No matter. We offered cookie first-aid where necessary and we'll be eating the evidence shortly.

Coco's Cookies

We are undaunted. We'll definitely try this technique again. We just need to go even smaller and simpler next time. That's the beauty of a learner's permit. We can try and fail and yet, not BE failures!

Cookies for Kate! who is definitely a cat/dog person. (Such a cat person is she that she fosters kittens from the humane society. Kittens! For fun!!!) However, she'll have to settle for enjoying her cookies cyber-style since she lives so far away and these are so delicate they'd have to be kept on life-support and hand-delivered. Not a job for Canada Post!

Quid pro quo

2011-12-17T15:04:00.000-05:00

chocolate cookies!

It's one week until Christmas and today's sermon is about gift giving.

Grandma Coco is a very generous soul. She loves toshare….her talents and her time. She likes to find the perfect gift for theperfect recipient.

What she doesn’t like ….. and you know there’s a pretty long list…..butin this case what she doesn’t like is the Obligatory Gift. She hates,hates, hates having to worry about that whole quid pro quo thing.

Grandma Coco has always understood a gift to be whatWikipedia defines as "the transfer of something without the expectation of receiving something in return". A free-will offering.

Occasionally, Grandma Coco has the inspiration to give someone something but then begins to worry that this will set up a feeling of obligation for the recipient. Definitely not cool and definitely not Grandma Coco's intent. This is the quid pro quo aspect to which we referred earlier.

Wikipedia defines quid pro quo as a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. If you give a gift with the expectation that you'll get something back in return, that's quid pro quo.

Sometimes the shoe's on the other foot. Some Christmases, when she knows a gift will be expected but she also knows she won't come up with a single good idea until, say, March, she ends up settling for something lame and uninspired like a gift card. (If you've bought Grandma Coco a gift card, just forget that last bit.)

Darn that obligatory gift!

What Grandma Coco would like everyone to know this holiday season is this: If you receive a gift from her, please just take it and run. Oh, you can say "Thanks", if you like. (We weren't raised by wolves, after all.) But, for heaven's sake, don't worry about getting her something in return. Just seeing your little eyes light up is pleasure enough for her.

Some days you're the windshield....

2011-12-14T12:30:00.000-05:00

You know the rest......some days you're the bug. Today, we're the bug. Splattt!

We're inspired by The Vanilla Bean Baker who recently was brave enough to post some of her disappointments. From what we've seen on her blog, we're certain hers are few and far between. If you're interested in decorated cookies, you should definitely check her out.

We regularly fall on our face but we don't usually share those moments here. We're not sure why....it's all part of learning and stretching. We learn more from our failures than we ever do from our successes and mastering new skills always involves lots of practice and lots of trial and error. In our experience, LOTS and LOTS of error.

And that brings us to our most recent failure. We changed our mind about how to proceed with this bracelet and set about unknotting and harvesting the beads for a re-do.

Grandma Coco's gone to fetch the scissors. :(

Catch of the day

2011-12-13T11:52:00.001-05:00

We take our motto very seriously around here. You know....."Every day we get up and play".... We really do. We are aware it makes us look a little unfocused ...like maybe we need a good dose of ritalin.....but, really, who cares? Certainly not us. We're like dogs that way. We catch a scent on the breeze and we run with it.

While we're waiting for our new sugar run-outs to dry in between colours and when we're tired of knitting on our new socks.....and while we're waiting for inspiration to strike for our new drawing commission.....we finished another micro macramé bracelet.

It uses a lot of the same beads as we used in the last one .... the one with the fabulous dragon fly button closure. We seem to be in a little bit of a purple/fuschia rut ..... a great rut to be stuck in, if you ask us. We haven't amassed a huge stash of beads yet so we thought it safer to acquire beads that would at least look nice together. We expect to branch out (colour-wise) soon. It just takes time....and cash. (Sigh.)

We made tags to attach to our bracelets because these are for gifts. The tag-making was almost as much fun as the bracelet-making.

Snow Dudes

2011-12-12T10:22:00.000-05:00

Cookies by Coco

Edited January 10, 2012 - We are new at this cookie decorating adventure so it might be interesting to note how these dudes ended up. Clearly, we still have lots to learn.

If you're visiting from LilaLoa's Snowman Celebration Link-Up Party,

Grandma Coco says, "Welcome to the Kingdom of Coco!"

Happy Anniversary!

2011-12-11T13:33:00.001-05:00

If today marked your 30th wedding anniversary,

then these would be the cookies for you. Just sayin'.

Another wonderful scarf!

2011-12-10T12:10:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, knittingdancer (from Ravelry) sent us a photo of her Papa Bear Sampler Scarf. It's beautiful!! The colour is gorgeous (but still totally suitable for either a man OR a woman). Whoever receives this as a gift will be very happy, we're sure. The yarn is Wollmeise Sockenwolle and the colourway is Sanguinella. Isn't the background quilt beautiful, too?

Don't forget......If you knit a Papa Bear Sampler Scarf and send us a photo to use on this blog, we'll send you a little gift.....a file to print a gift tag to go along with it! Send your photo to us here: grandmacocosdesigns (at) gmail (dot) com

Birthday Biker Boy Cookies

2011-12-07T11:51:00.001-05:00

Someone we love is having a birthday soon and Grandma Coco thought Cheryl should make some celebratory cookies. We have all week. What's the problem? Well, the problem is we're still learning and you know what that means. Everything takes much longer than you'd think. If you rush a cookie, you invite disaster. You could even get (gasp!) bleeding so for a novice, every decision is pretty much life or death. Cheryl doesn't like to live on the edge the way Grandma Coco does but in the end GC was right. We have a plate of pretty cool cookies for a dude who likes motorcycles and cigars.

In the beginning....there was a drawing. There always is. Remember it? We simplified and simplified (remembering the complexity of the snowman this past weekend).

We can hardly wait to make more.

Photos of Papa Bear Sampler Scarves are beginning to trickle in.

This lovely (handsome!) example was made by shoshieb (her Ravelry name) and it's a beauty! What a great lavender colour that any man (or woman!) would be lucky to receive as a gift. Well done, shoshieb!

If you have finished a Papa Bear Sampler Scarf, send us the photo to show on this blog and we'll send you a file to print your own gift tag. Here's the address: grandmacocosdesigns (at) gmail (dot) com

All Wrapped Up

2011-12-06T12:23:00.001-05:00

We've been working on gifts and inevitably the puzzle of how to package them must be addressed. Last year, we were completely smitten with our friend Karen's lovely gift boxes. This year, we tripped over a tutorial for Japanese Gift Bags on The Quilt Show. You have to register to see them but it's worth it. They're quick and very cute. And just the right size for a beaded micro macrame bracelet.

And what do we have here? Femmeng Kate sent us a photo of her Papa Bear Sampler Scarf. Very handsome! The yarn is lovely. It's Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Fingering. Thanks for sharing the photo, Femmeng Kate! and thanks, too, for knitting along with us.

We've sent Femmeng Kate a file to print her own gift card to go with her scarf. Don't forget, we'll send you one, too, if you send us a photo of your completed scarf to show here on the blog.

Nifty, Gifty Socks

2011-12-05T12:10:00.001-05:00

It's rainy here in the Kingdom today. Our friend Tony calls it a "dirty" day.....cool and just enough misty rain to make you feel miserable if you have to be out in it, working hard, as he does. It's the kind of day that just begs for warm, wool socks.

We've been working on a pair. Nothing spectacular but we're pleased with them which is good 'cuz they're a gift (for a fella who obviously doesn't read this blog). We made them from the same yarn we used for the Papa Bear Sampler Scarf. Elann.com's Sock It To Me Dankai....this time Colour 62 which is unfortunately no longer available. (They have other colourways left though.) We liked this yarn when we knit the scarf and we like this yarn for socks. It's very soft and the colours are very pretty.

We knit it with size 2.75 mm bamboo needles and 72 stitches. We worked 8 inches and turned the heel and then 8 inches for the foot and finished the toe. As usual. We had quite a lot of yarn leftover. It's a big ball of yarn.....420 metres (458 yards)....generous, indeed. The stitch pattern is simple but interesting enough to keep the needles clicking.

Row 1: *k2, p2, rep from * to the end.
Row 2: same as row 1
Row 3: knit
Row 4: knit

Man-Approved!

Now, to reach into our stash of yarn and choose another skein. Such luxury.

Cookies for a Sunday afternoon

2011-12-04T12:43:00.001-05:00

For centuries art students have studied the masters. In a time before photography, art students would set up easels in galleries and copy the colour choices and brush strokes of really great artists. As long as you don't try to pass off this copy as your own work, we don't see the harm. It's a learning process. Concentrate on the technique by not having to worry about composition or colour. Master the technique and then go on to pursue your own vision in the new medium.

Today, we want to document our own learning process. And the medium du jour is cookies! Remember art is everywhere.

We've been stalking a new-to-us cookie blog called Sweetopia and if you're at all interested in cookies, you should check out her blog. Go ahead. We'll wait........... Right. You're back.

There are about a million ways to decorate a cookie and one of the first that caught our eye was what Marian (from Sweetopia) calls a 'runout'. So cool! Seriously! It's a design made of royal icing piped onto parchment paper. Once it's dried, you can pick it up and set it on top of a cookie.

Like one of those art students, we set out to master this technique by totally copying Marian's project. I don't think Marian has to worry. We're clearly no threat because we made a ton of mistakes but we learned lots, too. For instance, when we went back to look at Marian's tutorial, we noticed that she had made a runout that fit on a cake top. Hmmmmm....perhaps that's why we had a wee bit of trouble making ours cookie-sized. :) Next time, we'll go with a simpler design.

Runout on parchment paper

This time we made Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies. It's a recipe we got years ago from Canadian Living Magazine (we think). You don't roll this dough. Just pat it into shape. We drew a rectangle on the back of the parchment paper and patted the dough out to cover. Bake and then slice while still warm. Because the snowmen are sorta large, the rectangles had to be big, too. Each cookie is a whopping 2.75 inches x 3.25 inches. Now, that's a cookie! We wrapped them up as party favours.

We really like how they turned out and we have big plans for more cookies to come. If you'd like to know the fine points of how this is done, head on over to Sweetopia.net to get it from the horse's mouth, so to speak. You don't want to learn from amateurs. You want to learn from the masters, too.

Weird Science

2011-12-03T13:11:00.001-05:00

We're sorting out the details for a new beaded micro macrame bracelet. We haven't been at this long but we seem to have amassed a pretty good stash of beads and cords and findings. However, we've learned that no matter how many beads one has in her stash, she's always lacking one. That seems to be the way it goes.

20 ga. bronze craft wire

We need a special bead for the closure on our new design and we can't really start until we've selected one because the loop is done first and it has to be the right size.

It needs to be a sort of dull bronze. Coincidentally (ever notice how often that word comes up in the Kingdom of Coco?) we saw a tutorial on the Beading Daily blog for making beads out of wire.

That was pretty easy! And we ended up with a nice bead....albeit a shiny bead.

We read that you can give copper and bronze an antique-y patina with a chemical called "liver of sulphur" but we also read that it's more toxic and difficult than we're comfortable with. A quick internet search (where would we be without Google?) suggested there's an all-natural alternative. That's for us!!

We hard-boiled an egg, chopped it up and put it in the bottom of a ziplok bag. We put our bronze Precious-es in there as well and sealed it up. The article said to leave it 4 to 6 hours. We left it overnight.

See the difference?

In the morning, we opened the Ziplok bag and laughed our maniacal mad scientist laugh.

It worked!

Can world domination

be far behind?

Cassie's interested in science, too!

One lump or two?

2011-12-02T12:36:00.001-05:00

Having passed the first day of December on the calendar, it seems it's all full-steam ahead to Christmas. Grandma Coco is, as you might imagine, a big fan of the holiday being the party girl she is but Cheryl is harder to drag on board. We pick and choose our activities......no to shopping and crowded malls, for example, and yes to.....

Christmas sugar cubes? Really, Cheryl? Yup.

The logical next step after sugar cookies. We caught the bug. We started with ordinary store-bought sugar cubes and royal icing and graduated to the "what if?" of how do they make sugar cubes anyway? Good question.

We experimented, finally settling on a mixture of 1/2 cup granulated white sugar and 1/4 cup icing sugar. We added water 1/4 teaspoon at a time until the mixture felt like damp sand. We found a very small and shallow plastic cap and lined it with plastic wrap. We packed the sugar mixture into it and scraped it off flat. This process is a lot like playing with a bucket at the beach, minus the sunburn. We tipped the cap over and used the edge of the plastic wrap to anchor the sugar as we lifted off the cap.

We left them to dry and found they were solid! Really solid. They don't crumble at all.

Anyone for tea?

WIP Wednesday: We did it our way!

2011-11-30T13:22:00.001-05:00

We saw the cutest project on Sew-Sisters' blog. It's a play mat from Moda Bakeshop. A Cathedral Window look-alike. Really, really cute! But you know Grandma Coco. She always has to do things her way.

First of all, we would never, never, never....in a million years, never!....cut 40 circles of fabric and 20 circles of batting and then try to sew them all together. Not gonna happen. That would be way too fussy. Nah, what we did was mark a circle on the right side of one piece of fabric. (We traced around a metal pie plate.) We layered this with batting and a 2nd fabric, stitched all around and then trimmed close to the stitching line. We ended up with a stack of 20 disks that didn't need to be turned inside out (which would have been a colossal pain).

The Moda Bakeshop tutorial blithely says that you should make a template of a square that fits on the circle where each point just touches the edge, in order to mark the lines which join the squares together. The designer does say that our square may not be the same size as hers because it depends on the size of the circle you started with and the width of the seam allowance, etc. However, she doesn't say exactly how to accomplish this particular bit of geometric wizardry. We scratched our head over this one for a while and then we figured it out. Measure the exact diameter of your circle. That's the diagonal of your template square. Draw a second line (the length of the diameter of your circle) at right angles to this line, through the mid-point. You have an 'X' where the end points are the 4 points of your square template, each one touching the perimeter of the circle. Join them up and cut out the square. It IS simple. We just couldn't visualize it at first.

Grandma Coco found it was easiest to mark the squares as we went. We're working with circles so we only really need to mark one side, slap another circle up to it and stitch. (Trying to match a marked line on one circle to the marked line on a second would again be a colossal pain.)

Once we had them all stitched together, we gave the arcs a little press just like the Moda Bakeshop lady said to do and then we riffed on her idea by top-stitching them down with a zig-zag satin stitch, finishing the edges and stitching them in place all at the same time. Cool!

Cassie gives it 4 paws up!!

Since there's been precious little quilting going on here

in the Kingdom of Coco lately,

we're delighted to be able to link today to the

Needle and Thread Network for the WIP Wednesday.

Be sure to hop on over there and see what everyone else is up to.

The Big Reveal!!!

2011-11-28T17:43:00.000-05:00

That's right! That's our Papa Bear Sampler Scarf all finished. We love it so much that we have to admit we've been wearing it. The awful truth is that we may not give it away after all. We are greedy....but not ashamed. (It's really nice!)

Here's what it looked like right off the needles. Yarn barf. Just like every other knitting project, it needs blocking to look its best. We know there are as many ways to go about this as there are knitters but we like to get it really wet. We soaked this in the bathroom sink in nice warm water (about body temperature). We left it for about 20 minutes. Then we worked some hair conditioner into it and rinsed it well. We think the big thing at this point is to remember how delicate the yarn is. You have to be careful you don't let the weight of the water-y wool damage it. Support it nicely. Squeeze out the excess water gently and roll it up in a big fluffy towel. Now, stand on it. No, really! This squishes out all the extra moisture into the towel. The knitting will only be damp when you unroll it.

We were fortunate that the big square foam mats (used for exercise, we think....people do that? exercise?) went on sale over the summer. We really like them. You can assemble them in squares for shawls or, in this case, in one long rectangle. We set them up at the deck door where the light was good and the kitty wasn't. Slowly, but surely, we pinned out the scarf, stretching it slightly to open up all the stitch patterns. Again, we don't want to be rough. We wouldn't want to break the yarn at this point.

It looks great! Now, it's just a matter of waiting for it to dry thoroughly. The kitty will sleep on it. It seems to be an unwritten kitty rule. Anything new on the floor must be put there for her sleeping pleasure. But what pleasure there could be in sleeping on damp wool, we can't imagine.

FYI here's all the wool we had leftover. :)

We would very much like to thank all of you who played along with us on this project. We enjoyed the knit and hope you did, too. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to email us: grandmacocosdesigns (AT) gmail (dot)com ......... You know what to do with the symbols. Better yet, if you finish your scarf and send us a photo of it to show here on the blog, we'll send you a little gift as a thank you...... a .PDF file to print 2 gift cards to attach to your scarf. There's a place to include laundering instructions and plenty of room for a love note.

All the instalments of the pattern will remain here on the blog where they're available for free. If you'd rather, you can download the entire project in one .PDF through our Ravelry store

for the princely sum of $3.50 US.

For now, we'll leave you with this..................

ENJOY!

Round

2011-11-27T12:50:00.001-05:00

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is "round".

All our ladies are round. Curvaceous and pillow-y. Warm and comforting. Unapologetically round.

Shiny, pretty

2011-11-26T16:17:00.001-05:00

We've been working away on several projects at once. That means there's not a lot to show on any given day but once in a while, we finish something. Today's that kind of day. We bought a button (actually, more than one) from Shawkl's etsy shop. They are beautiful buttons. Shiny! They're Czech glass buttons. This one is fairly big.... about an inch and a quarter in diameter. We're rank amateurs at micro macrame but we knew we wanted to build a bracelet around this button. We have in mind a recipient who will really appreciate it because dragonflies have great meaning for her. (It's OK, we don't think she reads this blog.)

We've found it difficult to get much info on the 'net for micro macrame so just in case anyone else is flailing around in the dark..... we used C-Lon cord in Amethyst that we got from BelloModo.com . We like them and they only charge a dollar for shipping! We started out with 6 80-inch lengths of cord, knotted the loop and joined the cords so we were working with 12 strands. We put 4 strands through the largest purple beads, single strands through the darkest purple seed beads (size 11), 3 strands through the next sized beads and then on the edge we had 2 strands. We put both strands through the size 8/0 delicas and then only one strand through the gold seed bead, then both through the delica, repeating until there were 7 delicas with 6 gold seed beads in each wedge. There are 7 wedges in all. Eighty inches turned out to be lots because we had a good 10 inches left at the end but the cord is cheap and the sorrow would be mighty if we got to the end and were short.

We have more buttons and more beads. It's a sickness with no cure. And that's OK.

High Calorie Fun

2011-11-25T16:23:00.001-05:00

Ever had the experience where a chance encounter sets you off in a whole new direction? We have. In fact, it happens to us quite regularly. We are so easily led. It makes for an exciting life. That's for sure.

Over Thanksgiving, we visited our cousin in the Big City. (It was her husband who so kindly took us to that wonderful wool store we raved about.) Our cousin in the Big City is full of Big City ways and it's always fun to visit her to see what she's gotten up to. She is a very gifted hostess and this time, she had a sugar bowl full of decorated sugar cubes. They were the most darling sugar cubes we had ever seen. As well, she mentioned baking gingerbread men. The more she talked and the more those cubes called to us, the more interested we became.

Small canvases. Tiny edible works of art. Hmmmmm......

We ought to backtrack to explain that about 30 years ago we took a few cake decorating classes. We have the diploma to prove it. For years we didn't even know where our university diploma was (chez our parents, as it turns out) but we've always kept the framed cake decorating diploma on display in our sewing room.

We mixed up a batch of our grandmother's shortbread cookies (the original Grandma Coco) and cut them out in assorted shapes. We're using Royal Icing and we've had to experiment with recipes and getting the consistency right. Pastry bag? Parchment paper cones? or Ziplok baggie? After some trial and error, we like the parchment paper cones. No tip. No coupler. Lots of fun.

Further proof, if any was needed, that art is everywhere.

Week #12 of the Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Knit-along

2011-11-22T02:00:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe but here we are with the final stitch pattern. And it's a pretty one. And easy, too. Double Moss Stitch. We have 47 stitches on the needles now. Please remember the 5 garter stitches at each end.

Row 1: K1, * p1, k1; rep from * to end.

Row 2: P1, * k1, p1; rep from * to end

Row 3: same as Row 2

Row 4: same as Row 1

Repeat these 4 rows, 9 times.

Final Border: Knit 7 rows of garter stitch.
Cast off. (Yahoo!)

Next week we'll talk about blocking and we'll show you photos!!! Don't forget, if you send us a photo of your finished scarf to show here on the blog, we'll send you a little gift in return.

For a printable .PDF of this week's exciting episode, click here.

Week #11 of the Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Knit-along

2011-11-15T02:00:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it? The penultimate pattern...... The Medallion Rib.

There are now 46 stitches on the needle. Remember the 5garter stitch border stitches on each edge.

Row 1: (right side) P4, *yb(move yarn to back), sl 2 purlwise.

C2B,p4; rep from * to end.

(C2B= knit into back of 2^nd stitch on needle,

thenknit first st. slipping both sts off needle

atthe same time.)

Row 2: K4, * yf (move yarnto front), sl 2 purlwise,

purlthe 2^nd st on left-hand needle, then the 1^st st,

slippingboth sts from needle tog, k4; rep from * to end.

Row 3: Knit

Row 4: Purl

Repeat these 4 rows, 8times, then work Rows 1-3 once more. Total 35 rows.

Separator: Knit 5 rowsincreasing 1 stitch by knitting into the front and back of a stitch somewherein the middle of the last row. (47 stitches total)

For a printable .PDF, click here.

Next week, we'll tackle the final pattern in this assortment.

Eat all you want

2011-11-14T14:48:00.001-05:00

Stripes are slimming.

Week #10 of the Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Knit-along

2011-11-08T02:00:00.000-05:00

Remember how last week we took it easy with a simple pattern? This week it's payback time. We're going to knit a fabulous stitch pattern which is a little more complicated....but not much. And it looks so great that all the effort will be worth it, we promise!

This week's pattern is the Star Stitch. It's a 4 row repeat. We've seen it worked in 2 different colours. Very cool. If you want to give that a try sometime, you use 1 colour for the first 2 rows and a different colour for the next 2 rows.

So, if you've finished last week's pattern, the Farrow Rib, you should have 47 stitches on your needle. Keeping in mind the 5 garter stitch borders on each edge, work the Star Stitch pattern a follows:

Row1: (right side) Knit

Row2: P1, * Make Star, p1; rep from * to end.

Row3: Knit

Row4: P3, Make Star, * p1, Make Star;

repfrom * to last 3 sts, p3.

Make Star = p3tog leaving sts on needle, yrn (yarn round needle), then purl the same 3 sts together again.

Repeatthese 4 rows, 9 times.

Separator: Knit 6 rows, reducing 1 st. anywhere in themiddle of the last row by knitting 2 sts tog.

(46stitches total)

Only 2 more pattern stitches to go....unless you've run out of yarn. :( Hang on..... You can just jump right to the final border when the rest of us get there in only 2 more weeks! (Can you believe that?)

You can find the .PDF here.

Cooties?!!

2011-11-07T13:46:00.002-05:00

Nah! Not cooties.....SPIDERS!!! We saw the cutest tutorial on Shawkl's blog and we knew we just had to try one for ourselves. Unfortunately, we didn't have any wire in the right gauge on hand so we just improvised with what we had. Shawkl's spiders are more elegant but ours was a lot of fun, too. We really like Shawkl's blog. She has lots of cool stuff going on and is very generous with her time and talents. As well, we ordered some Czech glass buttons from her Etsy shop and they are even more beautiful in person than they look on the computer monitor. Watch for them to appear in future projects!

For now, we finished another beaded macrame bracelet. This one is a gift for a young lady we know. We hope she'll like it!

And, finally......SOCKS!

We finished them. We like this pattern stitch. In fact, we like it so much we're planning to cast on another pair. We have a couple of modifications we want to try and then we plan to share the pattern. Stay tuned.

Week #9 - Farrow Rib

2011-11-01T02:00:00.000-04:00

We don't know about you, but we've had a busy week so we thought we'd kick back with something really, really simple. Maybe next week all our brain cells will be working again and we'll get to something a little more challenging. For now, though, Farrow Rib sounds just about right. Only 2 rows. Simple. Are you running short of yarn? This is a great one to skimp on, if you are.

There are now 47 stitches. Remember the 5 garter stitch edgestitches.

Row 1: (right side) * K2, p1; rep from * to last st., k1.

Row 2: P1, * k2, p1; rep from * to end.

Repeat these 2 rows until you have about 5 inches worked, ending after Row 1.

Work the separator section:

Knit 5 rows eventhis time in garter stitch,. Noincrease, no decrease. (47 stitches total)

You'll find a .PDF here.

And don't forget, for anyone who finishes his/her scarf and sends us a photo to show on this blog, we have a little present.

More Scary ... this time, Socks!

2011-10-31T12:43:00.000-04:00

What? Doesn't everyone have Hallowe'en socks?

We have one lovely lady in our life who can't get enough of all things Hallowe'en. She loves the holiday and we love her so we made her Hallowe'en socks. Kroy. 3mm needles. With embroidered jack-o'lanterns. We're planning to do a lot more wool embroidery. This was fun! (And yes, she is one of the ones who appreciates our work. She'll definitely be getting more.)

We have noticed over our (considerably long) lifetime a growing trend to making much more of a holiday of Hallowe'en. When we were kids, it was more low key. We all dressed up in costumes. Yes. But they were mostly homemade concoctions. There were lots of hobos and ghosts (from old bed sheets). Witches were common. We once made a witch's hat out of black bristol board. Our best and most memorable costume involved a fake beard we made out of curls of paper glued to a mask.

We didn't really see the appeal of the holiday. We got candy at home. Not a lot but enough. And walking around the neighbourhood begging after dark wasn't our thing. Let's not forget that we were timid even then and fearful of the dark. We'd had our share of being bullied in broad daylight. It seemed silly to ask for more trouble after dark from enemies real OR imagined.

One memorable year, Hallowe'en coincided with the night of our regular Girl Guide meeting. Afterwards 3 of us set out trick-or-treating. We rang the doorbell of our first house and were horrified to see Dawn MacDougall (who's probably all grown up and way smarter now) reach out and "soap" the door screen. BEFORE the lady opened the door. We hadn't been given any notice that Dawn was packing (soap) or that she intended to deface any windows or screens. This was something nice girls didn't do and we were certainly nice girls. The lady was horrified, too. Soap is pretty hard to get off a window screen. However, we suppose she thought it couldn't have been us because who would be so bold (or stupid!) so she ponied up the candy.

Our 2 friends were hardcore Hallowe'en experts. They carried pillow cases for maximum candy acquisition. They gamely held up their pillowcases and the candy dropped into the abyss. We held up our pint-sized plastic jack-o'lantern which was fairly full by then with candy we'd got at the Guide meeting and the lady suggested we were pretty greedy and shouldn't we be calling it a night. Ah, yes. Good times.

Happy Hallowe'en!!

Something scary

2011-10-30T15:14:00.001-04:00

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is 'scary'. We did this drawing earlier this year and the subject matter and tone are so out of character for us that every time we turn the page in our sketch book and see this one, it gives us a little jolt. It must resonate with some deep, dark spot in our psyche. Hope it doesn't give anyone else nightmares!!

In our mailbox

2011-10-28T13:52:00.000-04:00

In today's mailbox.....2 more Haunted Houses postcards from a swap over on Postcard Cottage. On the left is Tamara's with a terrific bat which we think she cut from a Hallowe'en print (So cute!!) and on the right is Regina's who also made good use of Hallowe'en printed fabric. It's fun to open the box and find such beautiful postcards inside.

Worksssss in Progess Wednesday

2011-10-26T13:12:00.000-04:00

We all know about Grandma Coco's attention span. It's pretty short. She's been making herself crazy with deadlined projects and now that they're completed, she's back on track with many irons in many fires....just the way she likes things.

So, on this particular Wednesday, she's working on the following:

SOCKS! Of course. These are specially made for a very sweet man who went out of his way recently to see that we got to a wonderful yarn store in a city that isn't our home. New socks seem like a small price to pay for such gallantry. The only problem is that he says he has 'hot feet' and, by that, we believe he means his feet feel hot in socks, NOT that, you know, he thinks he has George Clooneyesque feet or anything weird like that. We don't know if he's ever worn a pair of hand knit wool socks before. Maybe he'll just be blown away by the luxury that is in store for him. Maybe not. We're knitting these out of Ariquipa , which is 65% superwash wool, 20% alpaca and 15% nylon. It is soft, soft and the yarn is fine so the socks won't be bulky (which we think might be an issue). We've knit with Ariquipa before and we love it. These socks have lots of stretch. They are ribbed with an alternating twisted stitch that looks like a cable.

DOUBLE KNITTING!. We're working away on kid- and adult-sized versions of Coco's Cap. Along the way, we got interested in other types of double knitting....corrugated ribbing, for example, and the brioche stitch. It's a long and winding (and exciting!) road we're on. And we haven't got a deadline. :)

BEADS!!! Another micro macrame beaded bracelet. This one we're just winging. Because it's fun.

A spooky Haunted Houses postcard in the mail from Pat!

POSTCARDS!! We finished some postcards this week for trading but we won't show them because we don't want to spoil the surprise for our recipients but here's one we received in the mail from Pat. Thank you, Pat! Scary stuff!

And that, in a nutshell, is what we're up to on this grey final Wednesday in October. Pop on over to The Needle and Thread Network to see what some other Canadian fibre artists are up to.

Week # 8 - Honeycomb Cable Stitch

2011-10-25T02:00:00.000-04:00

This week's stitch pattern is no more complicated than any of the others but there are a few more rows.

There are now 48 stitches on the needle. Remember the 5garter stitch border stitches on each edge.

Row 1: (right side) Knit

Row 2: K2, * p2, k2; repeatfrom * to end.

Rep the last 2 rows oncemore.

Row5: K1, * C2F, C2B; repfrom * to last st, k1.

C2F = knit into front of 2^ndstitch on needle,

then knit first st.slipping both sts off needle

at the same time.

C2B = knit into back of 2^ndst on needle, then knit

first st. slipping both stsoff needle at the same time.

Row 6: P2, * k2, p2; repfrom * to end.

Row 7: Knit

Row 8: As 6^throw. Repeat the last 2 rows once more.

Row 11: K1, * C2B, C2F; repfrom * to last st., k1

Row 12: As 2^ndrow.

Rep these 12 rows 3 times,then work Rows 1 and 2 again.

Work the separator section:

Knit 6 rows thistime in garter stitch, decreasing 1 stitch (by knitting 2 stitches together)somewhere in the middle of the last row. (47 stitches total)

We're now 4 weeks away from finishing a lovely, warm scarf

for that special guy on our holiday gift list. Can you believe it?

We don't want to bum anyone out but.....2 months from today is.......You know.

For a printable .PDF, click here.

My happy place

2011-10-24T13:23:00.001-04:00

... or....wouldn't Valium be quicker?

Last week, Grandma Coco had the great good fortune to meet a cyber friend for coffee in a little town an hour away, which was halfway for both of us. As this was a first in-the-flesh meeting, it could have gone either way. However, we are happy to report that our friend is just as lovely in person as she seems to be in the comments. We are also happy to report that she's not one of those cyber weirdos you sometimes read about. Thank goodness. What a relief!

In fact, she came bearing gifts!! She brought us some books from her own collection. A couple of "good read" books and a very thought-provoking book about meditating through knitting. Mindful Knitting by Tara Jon Manning. Since we often knit for the peace it brings us, we found this one particularly interesting. A very thoughtful gift!

Grandma Coco has been feeling a little stressed lately. Too many (mostly self-imposed) deadlines!! Why do we always remember too late that we hate to do anything to a deadline?? Deadlines suck the fun right out of everything. We need to calm down, breathe and find our centre again. OOOOOOOHHHHHHMMMM.......

One of the projects that needed to be finished was a whopper! These socks are for really big, man-sized feet. Note how big they are in relation to our Birkenstocks!!! If it weren't for the deadline, these would definitely qualify as mindful knitting since they just seemed to go on forever....round after round, inch after inch. We wrote about starting them here on September 28. In the end, we used almost all of the Sock-it-to-Me Soft Focus and 2 balls of the dark grey. That's about twice the wool we'd use for a normal pair. The resulting socks will be very warm and will likely be worn for ice-fishing by Coconut Number One.

Just to be clear.....if Grandma Coco knits you socks, you only get more if you somehow communicate that you liked them. She can't be making socks for people who don't like them. That would be pointless.

If this is Tuesday ...

2011-10-18T02:00:00.000-04:00

... then it must be time for another installment of the Papa Bear Sampler Scarf adventure. We've had a very busy week but we're zoomin' along on our scarf. So many attractive stitch patterns to choose from. This week's is called Twisted Texture.

There are now 47 stitches on the needle. Remember the 5garter stitch border stitches on each edge.

Row 1 (Wrong Side): purl

Row 2: p1 * C2B, p1; repeat from * to end.

C2B= Knit into back of 2^nd st. on needle, thenknit first st.,

slipping both stsoff needle at the same time.

Row 3: k1, * purl into 2^nd stitch on needle andthen purl first stitch, slipping both stitches off needle at the same time, k1;repeat from * to end.

Row 4: knit

Repeat these 4 rows, 9 times. (36 rows)

Note that you start with Row 1 (the wrong side) on the leftof the chart and note also the strange stitch symbols which I made up. Hopeit’s clear. Please ask, if it’s not.

Work the separator section:

Knit 5 rows thistime in garter stitch, increasing 1 stitch (by knitting into front and back ofone stitch) somewhere in the middle of the last row. (48 stitches total)

So far, so good! Only FIVE! sections left.

And don't forget, we have a little gift for anyone who sends us a photo of their completed scarf.

For a .PDF of these instructions, click here.

Week #6 - Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Knit-along

2011-10-11T02:00:00.000-04:00

We're halfway home! And not a minute too soon since we actually saw a TV advertisement for Christmas this week! They get earlier every year.

This week's offering comes with a charmingly old world spelling ... Chequerboard ... lest you need further proof that our stitch dictionary is really quite old. It's an attractive pattern and not very taxing at all to knit. Manly though, right? Cassie seems to like it.

There are now 46 stitches on the needle. Remember the 5garter stitch border stitches on each edge.

Row 1 (Right Side): k4 * p4, k4; repeat from * toend.

Row 2: p4 * k4, p4; repeat from * to end.

Row 3: same as Row 1

Row 4: same as Row 2

Row 5: same as Row 2

Row 6: same as Row 1

Row 7: same as Row 2

Row 8: same as Row 1

Repeat these 8 rows, 4 times. (32 rows)

Right click to see a full-size, printable chart.

Work the separator section:

Knit 7 rows this time increasing 1 stitch (byknitting into the front and back of one stitch) anywhere in the middle of thelast row. The last row is a right siderow. (47 stitches total)

You'll find a .PDF of this week's installment here. Finally! Sorry for the delay.

A great show and a little rant

2011-10-04T17:55:00.000-04:00

We set off today on a solitary journey to a destination we've been looking forward to for some time. As we pulled out of the driveway we reflected that this is the first time we've been able to drive ourselves anywhere all on our own since before the great Summer of Sightlessness 2011. We didn't go far really, just 20 minutes or so to the Arthur Child Heritage Museum in Gananoque, ON, where, until October 10th, they are hosting the Threadworks 2010 exhibition.

We've been to 3 of these now. Threadworks is a juried show which is held every 3 years. It is organized by the Ontario Network of Needleworkers. The theme of the 2010 show is Trees. A significant number of pieces from the show travel throughout Ontario for a 3-year run but entry is open to any Canadian resident.

This tree-themed exhibit is nothing short of spectacular......and we can't show you a single image from it because no photography is allowed and there was no print catalogue available. The best we can do is point you here to see some very poor quality, low-res images. Some of them are very bad indeed. Not one does the original piece justice. Some must make the fibre artist cringe.

Why have we become so sensitive to possible copyright infringement that we have made this pieces completely unavailable to most of the viewing public? What is the point of making art, if no one gets to see it? Furthermore, what is the point of making these fabulous pieces of art available in a format that makes them look so crummy?

If you get a chance to see this exhibit, be sure to go. It's amazing. Thread painting, quilting, embroidery. Absolutely breath-taking.

Because we're cyber sleuths at heart, we googled some of the names. It's surprising that so few of the artists have websites that we could access. Here's a good one: Kate Madeloso from Halifax, NS, made a lovely, quiet piece that we missed on our first tour of the room. This often happens to us. The big, the bright and the bold catch our eye on first glance. On our second tour, we were startled to see there were hand-embroidered messages written along the branches of the tree .... a letter from a friend to the tree itself. She won best hand embroidery for her Message to Earth. You can see it here on her blog.

Tracy Lawko, from Glen Huron, ON, has a calm and peaceful thread painted scene called November Hedgerow. She has a web presence where you can see examples of her work but not, unfortunately the piece from the show. Fortunately, it's one of the few that shows quite well in the Threadworks Catalogue.

Our very favourite piece didn't win any prize. Can't See The Trees For The Forest by Linda Hiebert of Thornhill ON is perfect. Perfectly rendered. Elegant. And humorous. We can't find her online and that's a shame. Have a look in the catalogue. You probably won't be able to see it well enough but we won't spoil the experience by explaining what we saw just in case you have the great good fortune to see it in person.

There are still a few venues. You can see the schedule here. Oh, and in spite of what it says there, the show's on in Gananoque until October 10th.

Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Knit-along - Week #5

2011-10-04T02:00:00.000-04:00

We crave something simple but attractive this week. Some subtle texture. How 'bout Basket Rib?

Wouldn't this be perfect for a sock?

There are now 47 stitches on the needle. Remember the 5garter stitch border stitches on each edge.

Row 1 (Right Side): Knit.

Row 2: Purl.

Row 3: K1, * sl 1 purlwise, k1; repeat from * to end.

Row 4: K1, * yf (move yarn to front as if to purl), sl 1purlwise, yb (move yarn to back as if preparing to knit), k1; repeat from * toend.

Repeat these 4 rows, 11 times. (44 rows) If you think you'll be short of yarn (or if you're just plain busy or lazy this week) this one would be a good one to knit fewer rows of.....of which to knit fewer rows? :)..... Just finish with Row 4.

Work the separator section:

Knit 6 rows this time decreasing 1 stitch (byknitting 2 stitches together) anywhere in the middle of the last row. (46stitches total)

You can find a printable .PDF of this week's installment HERE.

Groovy, man!

2011-10-02T13:14:00.001-04:00

Grandma Coco is not afraid to admit she's old enough to remember the macrame era of the late '60's, early '70's. Clunky plant hangers were all the rage. We never really took to it. Knot (!!) sure why. :) However, it is said for every thing there is a season and it looks like our macrame season is now.

Yes! This is the micro macrame we talked about way back in the summer when we didn't have a snowball's chance in you-know-where of seeing the beads, let alone the tiny holes. But now, with the return of our eyesight, it's full speed ahead.

We saw some bracelets online somewhere many months ago and we haven't been able to get them off our minds. There isn't a whole lot of info to be found on the internet so we did what we always do. We bought a book. We ordered Micro-Macrame: 30 Beaded Designs For Jewelry Using Crystals and Cords by Annika deGroot. Then we started to assemble our materials. We had to order the special cord from Bello Modo. And of course, we had them throw in a few beads while we were at it. (Great service, BTW. And only $1 for shipping.)

We picked a design from the book....Zig-Zag Bracelet from page 48....and then we changed it slightly by subbing in the beads we had on hand because we find it really hard to follow rules. Turns out, it's very forgiving. And not nearly as complicated as it looks. We have a whole winter of beady fun by the woodstove to look forward to.

The Monsters Under My Bed

2011-09-30T10:59:00.002-04:00

“There’s no monster

Under your bed.

There’s no such thing,”

My father said.

“Here, I’ll show you.”

Down on the floor,

Lifting the quilt …

An ominous roar!

Piercing red eyes,

Slobbering snout.

Razor sharp claws

Came flashing out.

They grabbed my dad,

Slashing his head

And pulled him down

Under my bed.

Crunch, crunch of bones.

Smack, smack of lips.

Slow ooze of gore

As life’s blood slips.

“Help,” pleaded Dad.

“Yum!” in reply.

Dad should have known.

I never lie.

On this, the very last day of September, it occurs to us that we have forgotten to mention that we had this poem and illustration published in this month's issue of Underneath the Juniper Tree.

We've been enjoying delving into our "dark side" which is what that magazine celebrates. Underneath the Juniper Tree is intended for kids 7 and up. It reminds us of the delicious thrill of scaring ourselves silly the way we once did with ghost stories around the campfire.

The funny thing is that the older we get, the less we want to be scared. We've discovered we can't watch some of those intense serial killer/police drama/everyone getting blown up or beaten to a pulp TV shows or else we'll have nightmares....at our age! Heck, some nights even Peter Mansbridge on The National can set us off.

Grandma Coco's never been accused of having an excessively sunny personality. However, as fun as it is to stretch and reach creatively, this poem and drawing are probably as dark as she can (or wants to) go.

Check out Underneath the Juniper Tree. Tomorrow they'll post the October issue online (it's free!) and October means "Hallowe'en" so it's probably going to be a good one.

New beginnings and one loose end

2011-09-28T12:50:00.001-04:00

We've been finishing so many projects lately that if we're going to show Works in Progress for the weekly check-in at the Needle and Thread Network, we're going to have to start some new ones. Fortunately, that's never a problem.

We're thinking ahead to the holiday season so we've got socks on the needles.....

For this pair we've chosen the same yarn that we're using for the Papa Bear Sampler Scarf but in a different colourway. It's Elann.com Sock It To Me Dankai, Colour 62, Raku Glaze. There's quite a bit of brown in this blend. Very soft, very long colour changes. We love it. It seems very similar to the Lang Jawoll Mystery we just had such success with. 72 stitches on 2.75 mm bamboo double points. Cuff down (as usual). We have a recipient in mind but it's a secret. Now, after the ribbing, what pattern stitch should we choose???

A second pair of socks for one of the kids who actually likes and wears our socks. He's an ice fisherman so we make him thick, warm and sturdy socks. We're using 2 strands of yarn at once. One strand of Elann.com's Sock It To Me Soft Focus Colour 68, Water Lilies. And one strand of Elann.com's, Sock It To Me 4-ply in a dark grey which we bought a while ago. We like to combine 2 strands of yarn. You just never know what you'll end up with. In this case, we're hoping the stripes will be muted by the grey. 56 stitches on 3.5 mm double points.

Funny thing about the 2 balls of Sock It To Me. They're both superwash and were purchased at the same time. In fact, you can still buy them but they're very different yarns. The Dankai is soft. We mean really soft. The Soft Focus, not so much. The Dankai was produced in Turkey and the Soft Focus in Italy.

We'll just pick up these 2 sock projects and work a few rounds on one and a few rounds on the other when we're watching TV and before you know it we'll have socks.

What else? Oh, yeah. Remember Coco's Cap? The little cap we designed for preemies and newborns? A little while ago Dowager left a comment asking if we'd ever made Coco's Caps in larger sizes. Dowager was thinking that cap would be cute for older kids and adults. We think so, too.

So....this is a gauge swatch. The first step on the path to a working pattern. We'll keep you updated on our progress.

Yesterday, was one of those glorious late summer days in the Kingdom of Coco. We don't like to brag but here's a peek at our view from the deck.

The sumac's beginning to turn red. It was still and warm and the leaves on the trees are beginning to colour and get crispy so that when the wind does stir, they rustle. Grandma Coco sat on the deck, knitting in hand and enjoyed a cold beverage with Mr. Coco. And here was our charming and most lady-like companion. She's an indoor-only kitty but she does like to lie on the deck (and never seems to think about venturing further afield).

"Why? Where would I do?" she asks.

Finally, as promised...... the one loose end.... the giveaway.....

Heather!

We hope you'll enjoy Norman's Blankie.

Please send us your mailing address and we'll send a copy of the book off to you.

And if you didn't win a copy (sorry!), click here to find out how to get one.

Week #4 - Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Knit-along

2011-09-27T02:00:00.000-04:00

Each week sees us a little farther along. We're into fall now and this is the last installment of September. We hope you're enjoying this project as much as we are. So little work at one time for such a great pay-off.

This week it's Plain Diamonds for us. Just straight knit and purl stitches. Very simple but effective. There are now 46 stitches on the needle. Remember the 5garter stitch border stitches on each edge.

Row 1 (Right Side): k4 * p1, k8; repeat from * tolast 5 stitches, p1, k4.

Row 2: p3, * k3, p6; repeat from * to last 6 stitches, k3,p3.

Row 3: k2, * p5, k4; repeat from * to last 7 stitches, p5,k2.

Row 4: p1, * k7, p2; repeat from * to last 8 stitches, k7,p1.

Row 5: purl

Row 6: same as Row 4

Row 7: same as Row 3

Row 8: same as Row 2

Repeat these 8 rows, 4 times and then work Rows 1 - 5, oncemore. (37 rows)

Here’s the chart:

And here comes the separator:

Knit 5 rows this time increasing 1 stitch (by knittinginto the front and back of any stitch) anywhere in the middle of the last row.(47 stitches total)

Week 4 means that we've completed 33% or fully 1/3 of the scarf!

A .PDF for this week's exciting episode can be found HERE.

Sunshiny cats, amazing socks and more

2011-09-26T11:33:00.002-04:00

Cassie's getting a late start. Note all her toys strewn around her. She stays up half the night carting them around....and wailing. Why does she wail? If anyone knows, please do share. She is a happy kitty. She has food and toys and lots of love. She is a mystery. A beautiful mystery.

And now for something amazing........

These are the green socks. Finished. That's really not the amazing part....contrary to what some might think. Look closely. They are mates. True (pretty near!) identical mates. Amazing! We started with one single ball of Lang Jawoll Magic Superwash. It weighed 98 grm (with the label) when we started. We knitted and weighed (obsessively) because we wanted to use as much of the yarn as possible (if you remember), making the sock legs as long as we could WITHOUT (and we can't stress this enough) having to rip the first sock back because we ran short on the second sock.

You all know how much we like math. No joke. We weighed and we calculated how much yarn we used as we went along. We have notes like: 84 gr. left, 5 inches from beginning. We thought we had it calculated pretty well and in the end...... Success! We had very little wool left.

However.....it is a complete and total, mind-boggling FLUKE! that these 2 socks are so similar..... especially when you consider how long the colour repeats are in this wool. We doubt we'll ever be able to repeat such a performance. We should just retire now. Several claims were made on these socks while they were in production but in the end, they're going to Mr. Coco and they fit him perfectly.

Here's a question for anyone who has knitted with this wool before. Somewhere during the knitting of the ribbing of the second sock we found a loosely tied knot....not a break, just a knot. Is this the manufacturer's indication of the true centre of the skein? It seems to be at the appropriate spot. That would be cool, if it was intentional.

Another one of those Razzle-Dazzle what is this? puzzles?????

No, this is our version of this from Stitch Nation Yarn.

Aren't they just the sweetest little hats you ever did see?

Unfortunately, we don't have access to a little baby right now and Cassie was sleeping and not inclined to model (but wouldn't that have been adorable?). We do know where to find a cute little baby though. Can't wait to see her in it.

Don't forget tomorrow's Part 4 of the Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Knit-along. There's still lots of time to catch up, if you've been thinking about joining in. We're planning to have a little gift for anyone who completes their scarf and sends us a picture. (Just in case you needed more incentive.)

And finally.....don't forget you have until Wednesday to go here and leave a comment to win a copy of Norman's Blankie.

How to deal with pesky salesmen (IF: 'Ferocious')

2011-09-25T13:39:00.000-04:00

Tired of being bamboozled by unscrupulous door-to-door salesmen, Grandma Coco has been practicing her ferocious look. This may end badly. And the worst thing is, there isn't a darn thing Cassie can do to stop it.

The Illustration Friday prompt this week is 'Ferocious'. That's probably all we need to say on the matter....

Norman's Blankie

2011-09-22T10:41:00.002-04:00


Illustration from Norman's Blankie Copyright © Cheryl Coville 2011

Boy, oh, boy, have we got news today! Our little book got published and we held it in our hands yesterday for the very first time. We felt like proud first-time parents! And, as such, we're going to give you the full story, complete with pictures. You might want to get a cup of tea and settle in. We don't do concise.

Norman's Blankie is a children's picture book we wrote and illustrated years ago. It's the story of a baby whose mother makes him a quilt. As he grows, he takes his quilt with him everywhere he goes but at some point, that quilt starts to look a little ratty. Norman's mother knows just what to do .... and so would any other mother/quilter/seamstress. It's a heartwarming story of a quilt but it's also about a mother's love and the way we carry that love with us all through life.

Earlier this year we read that Fun With Books was looking to publish books for their fabulous program. What? you don't know about Fun With Books?? Well, we've been following them for years now. They are a bunch of volunteers....about 200 of them now....who give away books to children under 5 for the sheer, unadulterated pleasure of fostering literacy. Not one member of the organization gets paid. And any child 5 and under in the Counties of Leeds and Grenville (that's eastern Ontario, Canada) can register to have a book delivered (by hand!) to him/her every other month. It used to be monthly but like everyone else, in these trying times, Fun With Books has had to cut back.

So, where were we? Oh, yes. Yesterday, we went with Mr. Coco to meet the team that packages the books for delivery. We helped stuff about 1700 copies of our book into envelopes. Bernie Boesveld, the chairman, made us very welcome and told us that in the 17 years that Fun With Books has been operating they've delivered about a half a million books! Imagine all the children who've begun their reading lives because of this group.


Illustration from *Norman's Blankie* Copyright © Cheryl Coville 2011

In the beginning, they handed out Little Golden Books that they bought but nowadays, in an effort to cut costs, they've begun to publish their own books. And that is why they've begun scouring the closets and desk drawers of local authors and illustrators. Grandma Coco thinks there are a lot more under-appreciated manuscripts out there. When Fun With Books publishes our books, we all win.

Fun With Books gets a little funding from time to time but, boy, could they ever use a little more. So, if you'd like a copy of the book or you'd just like to make a donation to a very good cause, please click on over to their site (click on fund raising in the left hand column). You can mail a cheque to them or you can click on the CanadaHelps.org button and donate with Paypal. The book retails for $8.00 and it costs them another dollar or 2 depending where you live to mail it out so please be generous. (Apart from the tiny fee that CanadaHelps.org charges, every penny goes to Fun With Books. Grandma Coco's not taking a dime. We just wanted you to know that.) Be sure to say you want a copy of Norman's Blankie and be sure to include your address.....either with your cheque or in the box on the CanadaHelps.org form.

Now, for everyone who read all the way to the end, we'd like to do a giveaway!! Leave us a comment on this blog post and tell us about your first reading experience or the blankie your mommy made for you when you were a baby or just what you think about literacy and children. We'll pick a winner randomly next Wednesday, September 28, 2011 and mail out a copy of Norman's Blankie to the winner.

Thanks for reading ... and thanks for supporting this great cause.

Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Week #3

2011-09-20T02:00:00.000-04:00

Can it be 3 weeks already? Time sure flies when you're knittin'. We know we have at least a little company on this knitting adventure. Grandma Coco's liking the way ours is going.

This week we'll add 6 inches of the Broken Rib Diagonal. There are so many traditional stitch patterns out there that would work in this manly scarf, we keep changing our minds on which one to do next.

There are now 46 stitches on the needle. Remember the 5garter stitch border stitches on each edge.

The Broken Rib Diagonal goes like this:

Row 1 (Right Side): * k4, p2; repeat from * to end.

Row 2: * k2, p4; repeat from * to end.

Row 3: same as Row 1

Row 4: same as Row 2

Row 5: k2 * p2, k4; repeat from * to last 4 stitches, p2, k2

Row 6: p2 * k2, p4; repeat from * to last 4 stitches, k2, p2

Row 7: same as Row 5

Row 8: same as Row 6

Row 9: * p2, k4; repeat from * to end.

Row 10: * p4, k2; repeat from * to end

Row 11: same as Row 9

Row 12: same as Row 10

Repeat these 12 rows, 3 times. (36 rows)

Here's the chart:

Right click to enlarge for a printable size.

We knit 6 rows this time, even….no increases ordecreases (46 stitches total) for the separator section.

We've put a .PDF of this week's installment here.

WIP Wednesday - a little of this, a little of that

2011-09-14T02:30:00.000-04:00

Grandma Coco is terribly embarrassed. She just figured out how this WIP thing-y works. Or at least she thinks she has. Finally. We are linking to the Needle and Thread Network. Very cool. All-Canadian, we think. And that in itself is cool.

So, what are we working on?

Not this.

Nope. This is done, put a fork in it, done.

And it seems to have passed the Cassie test.

No, we are working on this.......

The Papa Bear Sampler Scarf

Still. And maybe for some time to come since it's a Knit-along and scheduled to finish on November 29th. Feel free to join in, if you like. All the info can be found here. Or click on the label "Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Knit-along" at the bottom of this post and all the relevant posts will be grouped together.

Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Week # 2

2011-09-13T06:34:00.000-04:00

Welcome back!

Last week we were all about trying new things like the cablecast-on and cabling without a special needle. This week, let’s take thingseasy with a simple texture stitch.

Waffle Stitch

There are now 47 stitches on the needle. Remember the 5garter stitch border stitches on each edge.

Row 1 (Right side): P1, * (K2, P1) repeat from * to end.

Row 2: K1, * (P2, K1) repeat from * to end.

Row 3: same as 1^strow

Row 4: knit

Repeat these 4 rows, 9 times. (36 rows)

Here’s the chart for you chart lovers. Please remember, you need to be awarewhich side of the work you’re on…..the right (public) side or the wrong (notmeant to be seen) side. In this instance, the odd rows are the right side andthe evens are the wrong side. Hope that’s clear.

Work the separator section:

Knit 4 rows this time, decreasing 1 stitch in themiddle of the last row by knitting 2 stitches together. (46 stitches total)

And now, at the end of Week # 2, here’s what we have…..

You can download a .PDF of this week's pattern installment here.
If you have any questions, please just ask. And, if you'd like to join us on Ravelry to meet other knitters who are also working on The Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Knit-along, you'll find us here. We have a group!

(A Most Unlikely) Kitchen for Mr. Toast's Creative Tuesday

2011-09-12T12:42:00.000-04:00

Once Upon a Time........before Grandma Coco even dreamed of the Kingdom of Coco, she was often trundled around the country in a car with her younger brother by her Mum and Dad. Summer vacations almost always saw them on the road. Sometimes they stayed in motels, sometimes they camped in a tent and later they towed a tiny travel trailer. They went coast to coast in Canada, and into the US. Her parents were great travellers. Her brother still is. She, however, never caught the bug. Perhaps this little story will help explain why.

One bright morning, they found themselves fresh off the ferry in Prince Edward Island..... a beautiful place. This was so long ago that you still had to access it by ferry....or by airplane, I guess, but that was, to the Cocos at least, a very exotic form of travel. The Dad was a great organizer and everyone always felt safe with him in charge. On this particular trip, some glitch occurred ....some convention or festival had filled up all the motels. The Dad and the brother stood in side-by-side pay phones and started calling around in a desperate search for accommodation. Finally, success! The brother reported that there was a room waiting for them at The Borden Inn. He was a hero. For a while.

Off they went to find The Borden Inn. Jubilation quickly turned to despair. It was a dump. The kids weren't even allowed to enter the room until it had been given the Full Lysol Treatment. The Mum was a great believer in the germ killing properties of Lysol and used it copiously.

The rest of the day was spent driving the island looking for a better place and, in time, they found it....a clean and comfortable cabin close to the ocean. The only problem was it wouldn't be available until the next day. The family was doomed to spend one night back at The Borden Inn.

Needless to say, the kids slept great even with the cloud of Lysol fumes. The parents probably did not because first thing the next morning, they rounded up everyone and everything, packed up the car and headed straight for the beach. The dad found a good solid rock and set up his trusty Coleman campstove. One of the first things he did was brew the coffee for the Mum. She was always more agreeable after her coffee. (Remember, this was pre-Timmys. Hard as it is to imagine a world without a Tim Horton's on every corner....and sand dune.) And, right there, in that most improbable of kitchens, the Dad set to work and cooked up the best breakfast that family ever tasted. Hard to say if it was the location with the ocean waves crashing and the sun rising or the fresh sea air or just the relief that things were going to get better from there on in. Whatever the reason, that breakfast made the cut and lives today in Grandma Coco's cerebral Book of Happy Memories.

You can see other artists' interpretation of the "kitchen" theme here at Mr. Toast's Creative Tuesdays.

Let's see.....What else?

Oh, yeah. Tomorrow's Week 2 of the Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Knit-along. Be sure to check back then for the next installment. We have a big party goin' on over on Ravelry. If you'd like to join in the fun, you can find us HERE.

And Little S's Santa Suit progresses under Cassie's watchful eye .....

Waitin' for Santa

A return to Zen and an invitation

2011-09-09T14:14:00.000-04:00

It seems a long time since we Zentangled. This week's challenge from the Diva is #38 and involves using only one tangle....Paradox. It was hard!!! but we're jumping right back in with both feet now that are eyes are pretty much back to normal. We had a funny moment this week when we went outside and looked around and were suddenly struck by how bright and crisp and clear everything was. We actually caught ourself touching our lenses to see if we really had our glasses on!! (We did.) What an odd sensation.

An Invitation.....Come one, come all......

Our Lady-of-the-comments, Kate, asked about the possibility of a Ravelry group for discussing our progress on the Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Knit-along. When we checked the rules, we need 3 members to start a group and oddly, Grandma Coco and Cheryl only count as one. Fortunately, our new friend, Judith, jumped up and offered to be our 3rd. So.....Ta-da!! We have a Ravelry group...... The Papa Bear Sampler Scarf Knit-along group. Please join us, if you're so inclined. Grandma Coco is looking forward to meeting new friends and she welcomes your input on the scarf.

We talk back!

To Pat: We envy the closeness you have with your sisters. The way you described the prayer shawls you all made is lovely.

Papa Bear Sampler Scarf - Week #1

2011-09-06T09:18:00.001-04:00

Welcome! Today we start our first knit-along. Grandma Coco's so excited she hardly slept a wink all night.

You will need 400 to 500 metres/yards fingering weight wool (sock yarnwould work well) and for needles, choose the size that lets you achieve a loose and lofty fabric, somewherein the neighbourhood of 5mm (US8).

Cast On 48 stitches loosely. We like a stretchy cast on forthis like a cable cast on. http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer05/FEATsum05TT.html

Knit 7 rows in garter stitch (knit every row) and after thefirst row, slip the first stitch of every row.

From here on, the first and last 5 stitches of every row arecontinued in garter stitch for the edging. You can place a marker, if you thinkyou’ll forget.

Our first stitch pattern is All-over Lattice. This is an old stitch pattern (as are all the stitch patterns we'll be using). Simple knit and purl stitches, transformed only by the order in which they're done. Pretty cool, eh?

Row 1: purl

Row 2: knit

Row 3: purl

Row 4: K1, *C4B, K4, C4F; repeat from * to last stitch, K1

Row 5: purl

Row 6: knit

Row 7: purl

Row 8: K3, C4F, C4B, *K4, C4F, C4B repeat from * to last 3 stitches, K3

C4B = Cable 4 Back – Slip next 2 stitches onto cable needleand hold to back. Knit next 2 stitches from left hand needle, then knit 2stitches from cable needle.

C4F = Cable 4 Front – Slip next 2 stitches onto cable needleand hold to front. Knit next 2 stitches from left hand needle, then knit 2stitches from cable needle.

Repeat these 8 rows 4 times and then work Rows 1 to 4. Total36 rows.

Here’s a chart for the pattern. Left click on the photo and it should enlarge so you can print it or just download the .PDF below. Row 1starts on the wrong side of the knitting.

You can use a cable needle to make these cables in thetraditional manner OR you can stretch a little and try to cable without anextra needle. It’s not as hard as it sounds. Kinda fun, really. Just rememberto pinch the base of the stitches that you’re slipping off the needle. That waythey can’t go anywhere. (Where would they go anyway?) Here’s everything youneed to know about cables, including how to do it without the special needle. http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/FEATwin07TT.html There are also videos on YouTube you can google.

Once you’ve completed the section of All-Over Lattice, there is a separator strip between the blocks of fancystitches. Knit 5 rows (starting on the wrong side) and this time, decrease1 stitch on the last of these rows by knitting 2 stitches togethersomewhere in the middle of the row. (47 stitches total) You’re now ready tostart a right-side row.

That’s it for Week #1. Don’t worry if yours doesn’t look as neat as ours. We cheated andblocked this bit for the photograph. Before blocking it’s a little uneven.Blocking is the penicillin of the knitting world. Be sure to come back nextTuesday for the next exciting installment.

If you'd like to print these directions, click here for a downloadable PDF.

The Papa Bear Sampler Scarf © Cheryl Coville 2011

Getting Ready

2011-09-05T13:18:00.000-04:00

Everybody ready for tomorrow?

Got your lunch packed and your clean clothes laid out?

What about your yarn?

This is what we finally decided on:

Isn't it beautiful? And so soft!!! We wish you all could feel it.

See ya tomorrow!

Illustration Friday: Mysterious

2011-09-05T11:17:00.000-04:00


Copyright © Cheryl Coville 2011

"Who's your mysterious little friend, Sean?"

A silly little doodle to celebrate the beginning of the school year. We remember those momentous first days. We were always excited to begin anew and fearful of what that might bring. As always there are personal bits in this drawing. Let us just offer this clue.... that we wore braids for our first 13 years and we're pretty sure we wore this exact expression of anxiety most of the time, too.

Peaceful knitting

2011-09-04T14:17:00.000-04:00

Meditation is supposed to be pretty good for us. It's supposed to reduce stress and lower blood pressure. Of course, a purring cat can do that for us, too, but there's always the litter box issue.

You can meditate in many ways. You can sit cross-legged in a quiet room and empty your mind. (Harder than it sounds, really.) You can concentrate on your breathing .... in...and...out. In...and...out. You can pay big bucks to take a course or find a guru on a mountaintop. We've tried some of these meditational gambits. (Not the guru. We're afraid of heights, remember.)

But, did you know that knitting rates high on the meditation meter? It's been proven. You can look it up.

All summer long we've been working on this same scarf. Inch after inch, mile after mile. We've only stopped now because we've run out of yarn and really there is a limit to how long a scarf can be and still be useful. We know the joys of simple, repetitive knitting. It's only a 4 row repeat that is easily memorized. Pick a luxury yarn and you have this amazing tactile experience.

And that brings us to the next point. After all that mindless knitting and after all the relaxation we got from the process...... after all the calming and soothing and quieting of our mind, we now have a pretty darn nice scarf to give someone.

Now that this scarf is complete, we'll just start another.

Details and pattern stitch can be found here.
A chart for the stitch pattern is here.
Email us if you have questions.

The worst kept secret award goes to ...

2011-09-03T04:00:00.000-04:00

US!! since it seems a couple of you Nancy Drews scooped Grandma Coco! Cheryl told her she should have locked you all up like they do before a big budget announcement. But, oh, no. Grandma Coco didn't see the need.

We're just going to go ahead and make the announcement and you can all pretend to be surprised. Ready? Here goes:

We've opened a Zazzle Store! Now, what in the world would you expect to find in a Zazzle Store? Good question. Glad you asked.

Grandma Coco's been busy stocking the shelves with mugs that have Cheryl's drawings on them. Very cool, if we do say so ourselves. We've put a few of our favourites up there and we'll be adding to them. Zazzle has other zazzle-icious items, too. T-shirts and tote bags, etc. We'll get to them in time. We'll also be able to sell prints of our drawings now so if there's anything you'd like, just ask! Be sure to check back later to see what's new.