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

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.

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

Copyright © Cheryl Coville 2011

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

Up to her armpits

Literally. The Santa Suit is rolling along. Just the sleeves and upper body and the hood to complete. It's an easy knit and we've already found the perfect buttons.

We have some yarn that we thought we'd like to use for the Papa Bear Sampler Scarf but we're not sure we're completely sold on it yet. It's not as soft as we'd have liked. It's nice enough but doesn't really conform to our knitting philosophy which is ... Life is too short to knit with crappy yarn. We're going to embroider that on a pillow some day. We make so few items in a year, it really is OK to make sure we use the good stuff. The knitting is much more pleasant.

We ordered some promising replacement fibre from Elann and kept tracking our shipment. Nothing. It was showing that it was in the postal system as of last Monday and ...nothing. Shoot. This would be the time when our order would get lost. And then, last evening, it hit the radar. In Ottawa. Yesterday at 1:15 pm. Yay!! We're hoping it will be delivered tomorrow. No big rush, really. We have an entire week before we start. (And just to be clear....we've always had terrific service from Elann.com with fast shipping and, no, the crappy yarn did not come from them.)

Copyright © Cheryl Coville 2011

A little teaser from the Nosey Nelly News.......

Monika once asked us what we did with all our drawings. We've never really worried much about that. They're fun to do. They make us happy. However, we may just have found another use for them. Stay tuned. Grandma Coco may soon have something exciting to announce. Doesn't that sound mysterious?

What the mind dredges up

August Ladies
Copyright © Cheryl Coville 2011

Sometimes when we draw, we are as surprised as anyone else by what comes up. Sometimes, we start with an idea of what we want to show but often we just start doodling. This time, we started with an oval which got eyes and that became a head which went on to get a body. Often, it's a case of asking....now what would this one be wearing? and what's she up to? It's a meditational thing.... a stream of conscious process that is very engrossing, relaxing and entertaining. We thought this one was interesting and it pleases us but after we thought about it for a while, we realized that it also speaks to some things that have been percolating in our brain.

One lady sits in a deck chair .... on a beach maybe?....and she looks overwhelmed by something....some problem. The other lady has turned her whole body toward her....giving her her full attention....and great concern. She's touching her with both hands. She's a large figure....soft and comforting and substantial. It occurs to us that there have been several mothering souls (not all of them female) who have come to sit with us and hold our hand (metaphorically) during this trying time. We are very grateful to them.

Tomorrow we mark the 6th week since we got our prism and since the neuro-opthalmologist said the 6th nerve palsy ought to resolve in 4 to 6 weeks. We think we should have got that in writing. :)  However, we are beginnng to see some improvement. In the mornings when we awake to find Cassie staring us down from atop our chest, we think we can see ONE (blurry) furball. The doctor said our vision would return gradually, just as it left, so we are hopeful.

Santa suit progress ...

..... from toes to baby crotch. Done. :)

... and something delicious!

Tofu Cheesecake

Grandma Coco can't eat dairy....no cow's milk, no cheese, cream, ice cream. Nothin'! However, we've become quite adept at substituting and this tofu cheesecake is really delicious, simple to make and CHEAP!!!

Into a blender, chuck the following:

1 530 gram block of silken tofu (Mandarin Soy Foods - purple package)

3 eggs

1 Tbsp. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup of sugar (more or less, as desired)

juice of one lemon

1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest

1/4 tsp. salt

Whizz this up until smooth. Pour into a prepared (uncooked) crust....graham cracker works well or we do this:

Into the food processor, chuck the following:

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp shortening, lard or margerine

1/4 cup coconut

2 Tbsp COLD water

Whizz this up and pat it into a pie plate. This will be crumbly and won't want to stick together. Just pat it into submission.

Bake the pie (cheesecake) at 350F for about 30 - 35 minutes or until it's starting to puff up around the edge and a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. It's best chilled for several hours (or even overnight) and then served with fresh fruit.  Mr. Coco's got a bumper crop of raspberries this year. Imagine GC doing her best JC impersonation ....

 "Bon appétit!" 

Don't forget to check back on Tuesday

for details of the special project we're planning!

It's gonna be FUN!

 

What can this be?

When we were little we used to watch Razzle Dazzle on TV. Bonus points to anyone who remembers who the host was. Hint: He's Canadian and he was married (maybe still is, for all we know) to Suzanne Somers. Every so often they'd show a hugely magnified picture of an everyday object and we'd be asked to identify it. Today, we're going to play a variation on that game......what can this red and white object be?

Give up?  It's one leg of a Santa sleeper, of course.

We found the pattern here. Isn't it just the cutest thing? And we know just the cutie to wear it this Christmas. The only problem is getting the size right since we need to start knitting now and she's got this annoying habit of GROWING!! :)  It's like trying to hit a moving target.

To make the project just a little bit more interesting, we want to use some yarn we have in our stash and it's not the same gauge AT ALL as the alpaca yarn the pattern calls for. Hmmmmm. This is going to call for some fancy footwork! For every school kid ....especially artsy kids.....who wonder what on earth the point is of mathematics when all they want to do is draw or paint or be creative.... we say this: Not a day goes by that we don't thank our lucky stars for math. We use geometry in quiltmaking when we design new blocks and we use basic arithmetic in knitting. Every day. We could not manage without them. Without a good background in math, a creative person would be doomed to forever follow someone else's pattern/design. And a creative person would soon go mad doing that.

So, here we are....we want to make this Santa sleeper and we want to make it from Knitpicks Crayon which we have in our stash. 100% cotton and soft, soft, soft. The colour we have is called RED. Not sure if it's available now because the only red on the site is now called Fiesta. RED is a real Christmas red so it's just what the doctor ordered. For the white fur trim, we found a furry novelty yarn at WalMart that's called Pipsqueak by Bernat.

The pattern comes with a schematic and that's what we used as a guide. After reading through and seeing how it's put together we just recalculated all our measurements using the results of our gauge swatch. Easy peasy. The novelty yarn is wildly different and required a couple of attempts to get the drape we liked. We're knitting it very loosely on larger needles (6mm) with only 28 stitches to start (instead of the 40 that you'd need with 2 strands of the alpaca the pattern calls for), increasing to 48 when we change to the red Crayon and 4mm needles. (We're aiming for the 12/18 month size.)

You can imagine how delighted we were to find that when we completed the first leg and slipped all the stitches onto waste yarn to wait for its mate, all the measurements corresponded to the schematic exactly!! We're on our way.

As well, we offer photographic proof that the sock is growing. We've finished the heel flap in the Eye of Partridge stitch and are now about to pick up stitches along each edge. We are weighing our skein of yarn obsessively hoping we'll have enough yarn for both socks. It would be a shame to have to rip back to shorten the leg. (And yes, we know that's why people like toe-up. We just happen to like the tubular cast-on.)

News Flash!! We are very excited to announce we're planning something special in the next few days..... a knit along! Stay tuned for the details.....especially if you've got a MAN on your Christmas list.  Er, we mean, if you're knitting for a man this Christmas, that is .... not asking Santa for one. :)