Knitting Teddy Bear

My not-so-little brother has quite the knack for unusual or unique gifts. You can't help but look at him sometimes, at that big dome shaped head of his and wonder what's going on inside. Once in a while, you are reminded that there's all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff happening.

When he told he was making my birthday gift, I was puzzled, to say the least. The last I knew of him making anything, he was a teenager making video montages that were both funny and touching. As far as I knew, he wasn't doing that sort of thing anymore, so what on earth could it be?

Then he showed up with this.



He'd gone to the Teddy Bear shop hoping they had a knitting teddy bear. They didn't, but the sales assistant had a suggestion for him. She sold him a bear and sent him on his way.

He and his girlfriend, Lisa, came up with this little guy. Lisa provided the knitting and Keith did all the requisite attaching of the needles and yarn to the bear.

See the bells attached to the fabric? Keith attached those so that the bear is....wait for it....

Knitting with Bells!

I love it. I totally love it. What a cute, clever gift! Thank you little brother. He's just adorable and he'll have pride of place on the table beside where I knit. I want to name him, because he comes with a birth certificate. Wonder what sort of name suits him? Suggestions welcome!

EDITED: I have had a couple of suggestions already of having a naming competition. Tell me what you think he should be called and somehow I'll come up with a winner!


* * *

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, I've been plugging away at my Tour de France cardigan. I've not posted updates because miles of stocking stitch does not make for fun blogging, but I'm happy to report that I will absolutely make it in under the deadline of Sunday night.



Between tonight and Sunday, I have only got to knit one sleeve and given that the first one seemed to happen quite without me noticing it, including needing to take off the cuff and knit a little more length into it, I reckon I'll be done before I know it. Tonight, we are having a night of eating and drinking and watching the tour with our country friends. They all know about my deadline. They'll be cheering me on to the finishing line, I've no doubt.

Stay tuned for the finished cardigan in a few days!

Bells

A riot of colour

Really, I think one of the best things about birthdays is all the ways in which you can extend the celebrating. You can spread out time spent with friends and family over several days and this means, rather happily, sometimes being the smiling recipient of generous gift giving.

During the week, good friend George presented me with a book I've been longing to make mine for some time.



Custom Knits is one of those MUST HAVE books, I think. I was thrilled when George gave it to me and I've spent the last few days devouring it. I'll be writing a review shortly!

Next came a very special gift from Jejune during the week. Jejune is, if you know her, a talented artist and she very generously gave me one of her original pieces of knitting art. I'm told that some discussion took place with Sean in readiness for this gift. I liked knowing that. It made me smile.



Towards the end of the week, a package was handed me at my desk at work and I recognised the handwriting immediately. I was having a particularly nasty morning so the timing of this package of squishy goodness landing on my desk couldn't have been better. It was from the ever wonderful RoseRed.



Wollmeise. Always, always treasured. I'm not even taking it out of the wrapper. The fun thing about getting this at work was seeing the faces of workmates who have not seen me receive yarn at work before. The presentation, the gloriousness of yarn wound into a twisted skein such as this - they were amazed. It's nice to be reminded sometimes that not everyone gets to experience the wonder of this stuff like we do!

And finally, today, Kylie came to town. We gathered together in the afternoon to farewell Shelley who is sadly, for us, leaving town next week. Kylie gave me some of the gloriously coloured Kaffe Fasset Regia sock yarn. That man knows color - such an explosion together in the one skein!



I have such wonderful friends. Just such great women. I count myself very lucky, and not just because they have excellent taste in yarn!

And since I'm in a yarn p0rn kinda mood, here are a couple of skeins that arrived today, courtesy of Tinkingbell who organised a bulk purchase from Blue Moon Fibre Arts. I chose a couple of colours that were not my usual style.

Socks that Rock in Sunstone.



And Socks that Rock in Beryl.



God I love that name. Beryl. I was partly inspired by the socks made by RoseRed in this colourway and partly I just wanted to have yarn called Beryl. I don't know why it's so funny but when I showed it to Sean and said the yarn was called Beryl, even he laughed. It sounds like your great aunt, doesn't it? The kind of woman who chain smokes and boils all her veggies to death. Or maybe that's just me.

It's been a fine birthday week all round.

Bells

A tale of knitting needles and caviar

Yesterday was a great day, for a Friday the 13th. A birthday and exhibition all rolled into one.

The day began extremely well with Sean presenting me with my very own Knit Picks Options set, which Donyale had kindly put some little extras in for me. Oh they are so lovely! I sat in bed for some time assembling the kit, playing with the little keys, looking at the pretty purple cables. I can't wait to use them!

I don't know if anyone remembers, but I have a thing for Junior Mints, which I always thought were hard to find, given they're not Australian. Sean surprised me with a massive box of the buggers which I have managed not to devour yet. Incredible.

While I was playing with the knit picks set, he was banging around in kitchen making a surprise Friday-morning-before-work-birthday-breakfast for me - totally unexpected - which included smoked salmon AND caviar on scrambled eggs. Somehow he had snuck all the goodies into the house on Thursday night and the caviar sat on the bench for some time before I noticed it during the cooking frenzy. Well, a girl just doesn't expect to see caviar on her kitchen bench, does she?? So she could be forgiven for looking right past it. I felt truly spoiled and loved. Knitting needles and caviar makes for a splendid start to a birthday.

Knit1Blog1
And last night was of course the Knit1Blog1 exhibition opening. What a fabulous event Craft ACT put on. There was a massive turn out, which may not have been comprised entirely of family we each dragged along. I took some photos but given the lighting and the crowd, they don't do the display justice. So I'm heading back this afternoon with my sister and possibly Ailsa, who is in town, to check it out sans crowds and get some better shots. For anyone who's wondering about taking photos, I spoke with Barb and it's absolutely fine to do so.

I was so proud to be part of it. There was so much beautiful work there and Barb and her colleagues have done an incredible job of putting it all together.

I also managed to snap up some of Jejune's beautiful knitting cards that were on sale there. They're brand new and so fantastic. I believe she's going to have them on sale via her blog shortly and I really recommend them.

She paints beautiful, delicate scenes of either yarn or knitting on the needles against backdrops of lace and antique teacups. They're stunning and deserve loads of adoration and purchasing! I'll be sure to let you all know when the cards themselves are available from her shop.

Bells

I am a lucky girl

I like to think that my birthday celebrations began last weekend when my sister was here and she gave me my first present. That kicked proceedings off nicely.

Despite being somewhat bummed about now being in my mid-30s (well, not technically until tomorrow), I'm not going to let that get in the way of having a damn good time.

So here's a little parade of a few of the things I've been lucky enough to receive so far.

My sister bought me a beautiful jewellery stand. You can't quite see in the photo but her dress is a very pretty pale green.

The wonder of this has revealed itself well and truly since she arrived. I can FIND my earrings in the morning. No more rifling through a bowl for a pair. They hang there now, so easy to find. I think I need more earrings. Sean...? Are you reading???

Next, my mum, who does lovely quilting, gave me a lap rug.


Lots of lovely colours in it that are very me - reds and greens. I am grateful for the warmth of a lap rug in this chilly Canberra winter.

A couple of parcels arrived in the mail this week and I exercised impressive restraint by not opening them. Actually, Sean said I had to wait. For some reason I did as i was told, until tonight. I thought he had agreed to let me open both but after opening one, he said that was it. I had to save the second, which is from Carol (who is on a total beanie kick right now) until my actual birthday. Poohead.

The gift I opened was from none other than RoseRed and it was all so prettily wrapped in red or purple paper (there was more than one package!) that I had to call and be on the phone while I opened it all. Well, who wouldn't call? I mean, really?

Check this out.


It's KOIGU SOCK YARN! IN RED!

I was literally bemoaning the lack of red yarn in my stash, and particularly red sock yarn, just a day or so ago. She must have been giggling at her cleverness, knowing she'd posted some to me that day.

These are so going to be for me. No gift socks will be made from this yarn. No siree!

Please note also that the koigu is nicely packaged in a Gladbag. In case you missed it, RoseRed displayed her supreme organisational skills in a highly amusing and informative tutorial on storing yarn in Gladbags earlier this week. Check it out. I'm sure you'll agree that we are not worthy.



And here's a bundle of other goodies RoseRed was sweet enough to send. Books! Chocolate! Oh wow. Obviously, the Yarn Harlot's book needs no introduction here. You rock RR! The other book is called 'I Like You' by Amy Sedaris. I've not heard of it but as a guide to entertaining that looks hilarious, you can't go wrong. I'm not the most capable hostess, so this is most appreciated. No more faux pas (what's the plural of that?) or disastrously cringe worthy social occasions for moi!

I am indeed a lucky girl. I know such wonderful people!

I believe tomorrow, Sean might well have a set of Knit Picks Options for me. But I can't say for sure. I gave him the place to go get them at a discount. The rest was up to him.

And speaking of Donyale (she who sells knitpicks at a discount) go there if for no other reason than to read the most hilarious story about her little boy and his thoughts on boy and girl parts. When I read it at work today (RoseRed alerted me to it) I giggled all afternoon.

Tomorrow is the opening of the KnitBlog1 Exhibition. Should be a great evening! Can't wait to see everyone's work up and on display. I think we're all just hoping Lulu doesn't hit the champagne too early.

To bed, to bed sleepy head.

Bells