Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Knit-in-Public Day



Saturday was the perfect day for knitting in public. Lawn chairs were arranged in the shade of the shop as we spent the day in a lovely breeze on the patio, offering chocolate covered strawberries to passers-by ....mmmm ...relaxation.

To celebrate the day, we hung colourful word bubbles around the shop. They are still there amusing us, so I hope you can come in and check them out! You'll see lines such as, "Knitting is cheaper than therapy," "Will knit for chocolate," and my current favourite, "Spinning ...because knitting isn't weird enough."

These cute quips were courtesy of a recent spindling class at the Ontario Handspinning Seminar taught by Catherine Forbes.

Apparently, Cambridge's attempt to break the record for the most people knitting in public had about 600 knitters ...but they needed closer to 1000. I guess when the weather is soooo perfect, we Canadians just have to get out and play! Just remember to take your knitting!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

You Just Never Know!

Sleeping Beauty is alive and well in St. Thomas.
How do I know this? Because she visited Little Red Mitten this afternoon!

Sleeping Beauty, aka Robin, is on a mission to make people smile

and notice how much life is like a Disney movie

...and she had all of us smiling.

When you visit Little Red Mitten, you just never know who you'll meet!

Read Beauty's blog - http://disneyed.blogspot.com

ps.

Hope to see you on Saturday, June 19 between 10 am and 4 pm

for World Wide Knit-in-Public Day

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Goodbye Pretty Sock ...Hello Handsome Sock

A ball of Zauberball Crazy is fun, wild, and yes, a bit crazy.

I started knitting "my" Zauberball sock as the perfect walk-around project while running our booth at the International Ploughing Match Quilt Show last weekend. The colours are so enticing that we sold all we had (more on order.)


Last night, while decreasing for the toe of sock number one, my husband asked if the sock was for him. Like Cinderella's step-sisters, the sock just barely stetched over his foot, obviously not his size. I don't know about you, but when a non-knitting family member says they like what I'm making, that's it! It's for them. He doth protest, (quite a bit, actually) but it will be frogged and reknitted just for him.


"Crazy" fun - here goes!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Shedden Quilt Show

It was a beautiful weekend in Shedden, Ontario. The International Ploughing Match Quilt Competition brought 70 to 80 quilts, close to 400 quilt lovers and 6 vendors (Little Red Mitten was there) to inspire and be inspired.

Every chance I got, I wandered among the quilts. The colours, fabrics and designs were a pleasure to absorb. I knew that when I got home, I'd be pulling out my quilt books and magazines and planning a project in a different kind of fibre. Since I've been so-o-o focussed on knitting lately, this also meant digging out my fabrics from a storage area, rearranging work tables and ironing board and reaquainting myself with my sewing tools! I'm happy to say that I can still do it: I finished a simple block yesterday and have a new scrappy quilt project in mind.

As a yarn vendor at a quilt show, we were a bit curious about crafter crossover. As we suspected though, lots of quilters knit and lots of knitters quilt. It's prefectly normal to bounce between projects and artistic mediums!

We 'bouncy types' are in good company: there's Kaffe Fassett, a "colour visionary" and artist who knitted and needlepointed for years before adding quilt and fabric design to his life; and yesterday, I read about Ann Feitelson, author of The Art of Fair Isle Knitting, who won a prize for one of her quilt designs.

Fibre is fibre is fiber. When you love it, you've got to play with it. And we're all perfectly normal ...in spite of what our families might think!