Begonia

 Sometimes, an idea comes together quickly and easily.

A friend wanted a small backpack with a drawstring top for her spring walks. She asked if  I knew of a pattern. I went looking in my usual sources and found exactly what she was looking for at Blue Calla Patterns, the Begonia Backpack.

I realized that I had most everything I needed in my stash, so I decided a quick little project would take my mind off the snow.

The bag is finished, mailed and received, so let me show you.

I was really pleased with how it turned out.

The zipper pulls line up in the centre, and the fabric is matched across the zipper.

I remembered to add my label. The bottom of the bag is cork fabric.

I added a cork overlay to the interior pocket.

There is a carabiner for her keys. I didn't take a picture but there is Daisy fabric lining the interior pocket.

All of the fabric was in my stash, along with the zippers. 

I also started a new sock, this week.

A plain vanilla sock in some pretty yarn from Area 51 Fibres. 

Not much sign of spring outside, although most of the snow has disappeared. However, my dining room plants think we need some bright flowers.

The weather for this week is forecast to be grey and rainy. A good week to sew.

Is It Spring Yet?

 Spring has been teasing us. One day, we are enjoying the sunshine, the next it is snowing again. It is hard to plan anything. 

I cut some forsythia branches, to bring some spring inside. I seem to have forgotten to take a picture when they were in full bloom. I'll catch the tree in a few more weeks, when it is in bloom.

I had a 9 yo helper to make cupcakes for our Sunday lunch.

The verdict from the guests: They taste better than the cupcakes from a high end bakery. Taste for the win!

We took Daisy for her first visit to the Chip Truck. In Eastern Ontario, chip trucks are everywhere people are, from spring through fall. Fresh, hot, and delicious treat on the go.

The socks I started in November, are finally finished. Turns out that the nine yo has feet almost as big as mine.

So, he has warm socks for his boots.

I also made some baby socks, for another grandma.

I've been sewing, but that is a story for another post. Today, the sun is out for a few minutes, and I am going to enjoy my coffee in the sunshine.

How Quickly They Grow

 When we were told that our puppies adoption was approved, we did a quick trip to the pet store to get a few things. One of the things we bought was a harness, to tether her in the car.  She was tiny, so it was tiny. Mudd seems to be checking out the whole thing.

It was the same size as my tea mug, so I decided she was a Teacup Husky.

That was nearly 2 months ago, and she outgrew that one in about 6 weeks, so I figured I could make her a new one from my stash. 

It turned out that the only thing I was missing was a side release buckle. So I ordered some online, and started to make the harness.

The buckles arrived this morning, so the harness is finished. Yes, there are Daisies on the fabric. 

It seems the hardest part was putting the buckle on.

It took me about 6 tries to get everything the correct way around. I realized the when I do these on purse straps they don't have an up or down. These ones are curved. so  I kept putting it on the wrong way round. I'll save the picture for the next time.

I tried it on Daisy, and she did her version of the fashion runway strut.

Adorable, though not quite what I was going for.

The good news is that it does fit. It will do for a new car harness.

I am going to try to figure out a larger version of the first one she had. It will make a better harness for walks.

After the sock that didn't work, last week, I am back to a trusted pattern.

Kate Atherley's Baby Sock pattern, at the baby bird stage.

Catching Up

 Between puppies and finishing Polaris, I have a bit of catching up on other things.

After I finished Polaris, I did a tidy of my space, cleaned my machine, changed the needle, wound some bobbins, dusted. Now I'm ready to start something new. However, I was running out of my usual Dove Grey thread. It is the colour I use the most of. 

I ordered some more Aurifil thread from Karen Neary. My thread arrived in two days, and you can see that Karen cares about her product.

Look at how pretty it comes wrapped.

It is so nice to see the care taken.

Some grey, fuchsia, and purple, now what will I do with that?

BTW, this isn't a paid product endorsement, I just love the way the packages come.

I finished my first weird sock.

As I suspected, it is the wrong shape for my foot.

See the wrinkles at the ankle, too much fabric for my foot. So I have frogged it. It was an interesting learning experiment, so the effort wasn't wasted. Back to the heel flap and gusset.

Daisy's favourite person went out without her this morning, for a whole hour. Here she is guarding his shoes and awaiting his return. An hour is a long time when you are little.

Polaris

The second "Quilt The North" subscription box made a FPP design by Karen Neary from Nova Scotia. I have made a couple of Karen's patterns, before, and they look fabulous when they are finished. 

This is my version of her Maritime Beauty Pattern.

i must admit that I am a little out of practice, so this one isn't perfect, but I still like it a lot.

I didn't get it balanced on the hanger, so it looks a bit drunken.

The kit included enough pink fabric for the back, but I saw this piece of fabric waving from my stash, so I used it for the back.

It is some fabric from 2024,  called Purely Canadian, Eh! Woodland animals looking up at the Northern lights.

In the Polaris quilt, the Northern Lights are represented by the flying geese. I deviated from the pattern, in my placement of the geese and in my colours.

Aurora come in all of these lovely colours. I usually see shades of green and purple, here, but my son, in Northern Alberta, has sent me pictures of red. I checked my stash and found a piece of red, from the same fabric line. So I added some red.

I also made my geese more chaotic.  Some years ago, I was flying to the west coast, on an evening flight. I looked out the window at the right moment, and the Northern Lights were all around the plane, dancing, swirling, changing colours. It was totally beautifully chaotic. I tried to add that feeling to my quilt.

Since Ursa Major and Ursa Minor point to the North Star (Polaris). I added them to the quilting.

Karen suggested a scrappy binding, and I happily used up my piecing leftovers to make a random, scrappy binding.

The quilt is 24" x 24" and I'm looking for a place to hang it.

I tried to finish this before the next Quilt the North box came, but I missed by one day. Not bad. I celebrated by enjoying my Peace by Chocolate bar that came with the Polaris box.

If you want to find out more about Auroras, you can look here.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26381685

Would You Like To See A Picture of My Puppy?

 Yes, I have turned into that kind of person. I just think Daisy is so cute!

It was warm yesterday, so we went for a walk. Daisy's Arctic ancestry is showing in her love of playing in the snow.

She also practices yoga, and tried out for the role of cat, by climbing into the cat tree. The cats are not amused.

My artistic activities have been progressing very slowly.

I quilted the Polaris quilt and added a binding. Karen suggested a scrappy binding, and it looks very good, although it does take time to sew all the pieces together. I am currently hand stitching the back side.

I expect to be able to show you the whole quilt later this week.

I have also been working on a sock.

A knitter on Mastodon was making this sock, and I just had to try it. 

I am currently this far along on the first sock. The pattern starts with the bottom of the heel, as a hexagon, until you seam it at the instep with a three needle bindoff. I'm currently knitting the foot out to the toe. The last step is to knit the leg. 

The pattern is  Hipsulaisen Karuselli and it is a free pattern on Ravelry.

https://ravel.me/hipsulaisen-karuselli

The indoor flowers have been putting on a show that we are missing much of the time. However, I caught this hibiscus flower the other day.

It is -13C today, but there looks like a promise of maple syrup weather soon. This was the view from my front door the other night.

The little Christmas trees are buried under about a metre of snow, it will be awhile before we can get them out, so we might as well enjoy the light they give until the snow melts.

New Projects

Polaris is currently on temporary hiatus as other projects have distracted me. I did get the batting and backing organized before I set it aside. 

First up, it is time for the winter Olympics. I live in a winter country so, yes, I watch. Snowboarding is my favourite sport, a long with free style skiing. I have actually never gone downhill on a board. I have done Xcountry skiing, but not in a long time. 

Olympics require a knitting project. It needs to be sufficiently interesting to fill the times between competitors' runs. So I chose a yarn that was waving at me from my stash, and cast on a shawl.

The yarn is from Fireweed Fibre in Winnipeg. It is Sweet Pea Sock, in the colourway "32 Is The New 23".

I am knitting another Through the Witch's Garden Shawl., by Melinda Measor.

I got this far, yesterday, watching Big Air.

My partner for watching the Olympics is my new puppy, Princess Daisy. 

She is about 10 weeks old, and arrived at our house on Saturday. She came a long way, from the North of Canada, North of Iqaluit. She took a plane from her community to Iqaluit and another plane from Iqaluit to Ottawa.

Northern communities often don't have health care providers for their animals, and might get a visiting vet once or twice a year. So they have a puppy problem. Daisy's mother and her entire litter came to Ottawa through a rescue organization. Mom has been spayed and returned to her loving family and the puppies are now up for adoption, here. 

I saw her on the website, and I knew she would be a good fit for our house. She loves snow and enjoys watching snowboarding with me.