BREATH IN THE COLD AIR

It's been a bit quiet here, this week was sort of weird. Some days you just feel like hiding under your blanket till it's time to sleep again. Or is it just me? 

I found out that what I struggle most with during the winter months is the lack of light and fresh air, as I don't go out quite as much and wake up too late (need to work on that.) 

So I went out a bit, wandering in Paris. Started a new crafty project (Christmas style). And I opened the windows. Took a deep (and cold) breath and was rewarded with that amazing view. 

Winter can be quite nice.

ADRIFT MITTENS

Mittens! Or is mitts when the fingers are not covered? Because in french mitaines and moufles are two different things so maybe you guys differentiate in english too? Nice way to start a post right?! Anyway, they're done! And oh so warm and soft. Here's a little step by step photo of how the first one came together ;)

The pattern is called Adrift and was made with some Plucky Knitter fingering yarn in mind, which I actually happened to have in my stash, with no real idea of what I would do with it. 100% of the reason I had grabbed the skein in my LYS in September was that amazing emerald green shade (it looks very Wizard of Oz to me). It's MCN yarn, which means it's a merino, cashmere and nylon blend. I had never knit with cashmere before. And you guys, I get what the fuss is all about MCN now! It knits up beautifully, it's super soft, elastic, strong, warm. I just LOVED knitting with it and I love wearing the mitts even more! 

The pattern was super simple to follow and memorize, I learned to do a thumb gusset without too much trouble (I picked up a few more stitches than the pattern said because I kept getting holes. The 5th try did the trick and the thumbs both look awesome now (if I may say so). I tried them on as I knit so I just stopped once the length was to my taste. They knit up CRAZY FAST. First one took me like 2 days and just one day for the second one. I have been wearing them all the time ever since. Let's make a whole lot more! Next on my list are the Antiquity mitts and a pair of basic mittens for the very cold days.  

Bonus photo! Thank you for stopping by this little blog and saying the sweetest things in the comments. You guys are the best!

LIFE RIGHT NOW // NOVEMBER 2014

loving my Whispering Pines shawl. I wear it ALL THE TIME.

thinking about Christmas present. So late. Hats it is!

eating way too much. As my sister said "food season is open!"

wondering if it's ok to do a Harry Potter marathon for the third time this year?

listening to The Hanging Tree. From the latest Hunger Games movie. Obsessed!

enjoying my growing collection of candles. The DIY lover in me may be thinking about how I could make some myself :)

making some sort of progress on my archive pages. Handmade is filling up slowly <3

struggling with energy and lack of Vitamin D. I hate how early the night sets in!

feeling like looking up. The sky is so pretty during Fall!

dreaming of a new tattoo. with pine trees in it <3

finding it hard not to put cinnamon on everything. I used to hate cinnamon. true story.

celebrating Christmas movie season! What you watching?

watching How to get away with murder. How awesome was that mid season finale?! 

hoping we'll get some snow this year!!

YARN ALONG // (almost) monogamous

Joining in with Ginny for the Yarn Along.

I love to knit. I love to read. Here's a little bit about both.

Let's start with a sneak peek. I have big plans for those leftover sock yarns. But first, I need more sock yarn. ;)

On my needles right now is my Coronis sweater! I'm almost done with the body!! I'm going to start the ribbing today and then… sleeve time! I can already tell I'm not going to enjoy the sleeves as much, sleeve syndrome anyone? But I really want to wear it soon so hey no choice there! It's really really fun and quick to knit though, I can't believe I knitted my first sweater flat… all those seams you guys!! Circular needles for the win!

Also on my needles but being very much ignored (because I have powered through the sweater) is the Warble cowl I am making for my sister. The plan here is to finish the body of my Coronis, then work on the scarf then go back to the sweater and work on the sleeves. This way I make progress and shouldn't get bored with any of the two! 

Reading! Hmm not much actually. Once I finished Book 8 of Outlander I was a bit lost in terms of "what's next" to be honest, then there was Lena Dunham's book which I sort of hate (more on that in my Fall book report), I also started Amy Poehler's book and got the Anne of Green Gables book series but haven't started it yet. I however have been watching a few Christmas movies already, it's not too early right?

SNAP SKETCH SCRAP // ONE

It's been a while since I made a layout. I don't think I really missed scrapbooking. Don't get me wrong, I love making layouts, creating, making stuff with my hands. But I am knitting a lot, and sewing and a few other stuff. My hands and brains are very happy at the moment with all those that I didn't really feel like I needed to scrap for a while. I missed stories though. It's been two years (!!!) since Canada and I have two half complete albums and hundreds of photos in a box. And I want to tell those stories. With words, papers and glue. So I grabbed my scrapbooking supplies and picked a few very random photos (those are the best). I wasn't quite sure what to do though. 

So I figured, hey let's take an online class! (i love classes, I'm nerdy like that). I'm a big big fan of Kelly Purkey. She's a/ super cool and b/ super talented. Also, her timing was perfect because as I was thinking about that she blogged about her Snap Sketch Scrap online class and how it was on sale throughout November. 10$ you guys. Filled with really cool content that happened to be exactly what I needed to get started.  A week later, we have two layouts. and two stories told. Success!

Indian Summer. We don't have that in France. So when the leaves started to change and suddenly the streets were filled with the most amazing shades of orange, pink, purple, red and yellow, I may have had the best time of my life. Fall in Canada was AMAZING. And I don't need more than the photo of a very awesome tree I walked by everyday to tell that story. I went a bit crazy with the background there (following the class instruction obviously!) Classes are only good if they force you to push through your limits right? I think it's awesome. The rest is just a whole lot of bits and pieces. And that title. I may be the owner of five different gold glittered thickets and I may have tried every single one of them on the photo before deciding on that one. Sometimes you just need a few upper case gold glittery letters.

And layout #2 (which is actually #1 because I made that one first)

This is a very random photo of a car that's not ours and a building I can't identify. But that's not the story. It's the story of five girls, going on a road trip to Toronto and the Niagara Falls, who spent 7 crazy hours stuck in a car (because apparently 3pm is the time you don't want to get stuck in traffic near Toronto. did not know that!), took way too many toilet breaks (5 girls!) and listened to very weird yet awesome french canadian Rap music (a story that got its own layout that I don't think I ever shared here, hum). Obviously that road trip was magic and crazy and awesome. So it deserved a cool yellow background. The two little photo corners/ arrow in red and blue is my favorite little detail ever (a very cool idea by Kelly!). The rest is a very random assortment of stuff, plus a few epoxy flowers because after all, it's a story about five girls. Looking at it, I feel like I want to go back and add a few more black lines and some more words. I might do. Still like it though.

So, yay, scrapbooking! Many more layouts to come! And stories. What's your favorite little random story?

SHETLAND WOOL WEEK // MY SHWOOK HAT

You guys, fair isle is THE BEST. I had so much fun working on this hat. Even though I had to do it twice (more about color issues and change of heart here). Picking colors is a lot more complicated than one would expect, not only do they need to go together but there is also contrast to consider, otherwise your pattern won't look much like a pattern at all! I ended up using a lot of blue, a touch of yellow to make it pop and some grey so it wouldn't pop too much. It's all about balance I guess. 

Fair isle can be quite impressive but knitting it isn't that complicated. You never work with more than two colors at once and except for a few tangles here and there it's just about following the pattern. Tension can be an issue, but that's what blocking is for right?

Honestly, there is only one thing I do not like about fair isle, and that is the gazillion ends one has to weave in at the end. Some more honesty? I still haven't woven them in… Won't stop me from wearing it though!

Yarn now! As you might know, fair isle comes from Scotland, it's actually the name of a small island near Shetland. So of course I had to use some scottish yarn! I went with Jamieson & Smith 100% Shetland wool. It's quite a rustic yarn, you can almost picture the sheep enjoying the Shetland lands and weathers! It comes in a lot of colors all very very gorgeous! It's quite nice to knit with, soft enough that your hands won't hurt, nicely elastic (always nice when working in fair isle!), it's quite shiny and blocks beautifully. Basically, I love it!! 

So, what next you ask? Well I have a few projects in mind :)

A cool sweater: Elementary, a cute hat & mitts combo, a magical cowl and a gorgeous cardigan!

Plus a few dozen more on my Ravelry fave ;)

1 PHOTO & 20 WORDS // SILENCE

Waiting for the sun to rise.

Silence is a blessing

For those not afraid of the dark.

————————————————————————

Joining in with Abi over at Creating Paper Dreams for A photo & 20 words. Sort of a day late, but let's ignore that fact. Also, she's awesome.

MORNING RITUALS aka I LOVE PORRIDGE

I love breakfast. Some say it is the most important meal of the day. I don't know if it's true but I do know that: I LOVE BREAKFAST. So obviously when I decided to cut back on gluten and dairy I knew I was in trouble. Because I did not quite realized it at the time but my breakfasts were made of 99% of gluten and dairy. Going salty was just not an option for me, I need sugar/sweets in the morning, eggs being the only exception. Sorry guys, I just don't see beans and sausage as something that is acceptable before noon ;) So I had to figure out what to do.

 August was sort of easy because you know in Summer you get hundreds of fruits available. So there was a lot of fruit salads going on. But it's now November and I'm just not going to eat an apple every single morning. But then I discovered porridge. Or oatmeal, whatever you call it. It's awesome, delicious, fun to make, and there's an infinite number of ways to costumize it! 

Because I also stopped dairy, I had to try a few things there too. I kind of like soy milk, but mostly with like a Starbucks, as in a drink. Then I discovered almond milk. Which might be my new favorite thing in the world (after porridge that is!). So that's what I use to cook the oats and what I add in my coffee every morning. I also buy a few gluten free products now and then such as bread and toast (so that i can spread my nutella on something mostly).
I now start my days with a warm, delicious and filling meal that doesn't make me feel like my stomach weighs more than the rest of my body and actually gives me enough energy to make it till lunch (no more 11am "is it lunch yet??" syndrome). It's a big win if you ask me!

Top 5 Porridge toppings!

Honey + Banana

Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam

Apple, cinnamon and nuts

Nutella

Berries. Black, red, whatever you fancy

MY CUP OF TEA // OCTOBER SOCKS

I finished my October pair of socks you guys! They are called My Cup of Tea socks and I never want to take them off! I used Oh Loops yarn in their Expelliarmus colorway. The yarn is a 80% superwash merino 20% nylon blend and it became the softest, prettiest thing ever after blocking! So glad I have two more skeins of that mix to knit with! The pattern is free on Ravelry and was pretty simple to memorize. The socks were knitted cuff down and I just followed the pattern for the heel and gusset, nothing fancy here (yet ;)). I'm quite proud of my toe, I'm getting way better at the kitchener stitch I think so, yay!

Monthly sock challenge 2 of 12 is thus completed! November now! I really really want to try toe up socks! But honestly a bit scared, they do seem way more complicated somehow. I do love the Leyburn socks though but the pattern isn't super generous in explaining the toe cast on and such so I have been digging the internet and youtube for tutorials and such, reading about the Judy's magic cast on a try! I however have quite a few things planned for November already so I think I might make the toe up my December socks using either the Leyburn or the Reasons to be cheerful pattern and go with a basic cuff down vanilla sock for November. I have a very fun multicolored skein of Oh Loops that would be perfect for it. Check my IG feed in the coming days to see what I decided ;) 

So, what are you guys doing for your November pair of socks?

let's talk PODCAST!

I love podcasts! Video podcast, audio podcast. Funny, informative. Perfect in every occasion! Long commute? Listen to a podcast! Want to listen to something while your hands are busing knitting/scrapbooking/sewing? Pick a podcast!

I listen podcasts almost on a daily basis, about a wide range of subjects. Here's my top 10, divided into two sections: audio and video.

TOP 5 AUDIO PODCAST

Ted Radio Hour. Ever heard of Ted talks? Well the Ted Radio Hours brings you the best of Ted Talks about basically every subject you can think of. A few of my favorites would be Simply Happy, Framing the story and The Hackers. Awesome, awesome podcast, super informating yet never boring!

Elise gets crafty. I'm a big fan of Elise. And was super excited when she decided to start podcasting. 30 episodes later and still super excited about it! It's all about creativity and the thousand subjects that revolve around it with awesome guests. 

Sunday Assembly. The Sunday Assembly is, in a few words, a godless congregation that celebrates life and community with awesome pop songs. And they also have a podcast! It's super funny, with a new guest every time telling its story. Love it

 Knit.fm This is actually the only audio knitting podcast that I listen to. The two ladies behind it work for Quince & Co and their podcast in super informative, in a very cool way. They've done episode about design principles, blocking, sweater making, colors… Very very cool podcast ideal if you want to learn more about techniques, yarn and design

PomCast. Do you know PomPom, the knitting pattern magazine? I'm a huge fan! And the girls behind it also have a podcast! It's AWESOME. And very very fun to listen to. Seriously, check it out!

me, unaware I'll have to rip back soon because I was so
into the podcast and laughing that I missed a yarn over ;)

TOP 5 VIDEO PODCAST

note: all those podcasts are knitting podcast. I might be slightly obsessed with knitting podcast right now :)

A Homespun House. Molly is just the sweetest! Her podcast is funny, very very inspiring and basically just a pleasure to watch. Highly highly recommend it!

MustStash Podcast. Those girls are the best. Also, queens of socks! I get a lot of my projects inspiration from their podcast, they are crazy productive so their podcast is always full of new sweaters and gorgeous new yarns. 

Fiber Trek. Sarah lives in Maine and not only does she love knitting but she loves everything that goes with it. The fibers, the sheeps, the history of knitting and crafts in general. And she is very very good at sharing all that love. Her podcast is very sweet and special and I always feel like she is telling us a story while I watch it!

OhLoops. Sarah and Lydia are the two girls behind the Oh Loops! brand. They hand dye their own yarn (which I've already talked about a bit here), are starting to design their own patterns, have awesome themed knit along (right now is Harry Potter!). And they also have a podcast!! Check out their Ravelry group, it's where the fun happens!

In a Sknit. Kristi and Sarah's podcast is the coolest, those girls are super fun to listen to and also very productive so you get a lot of inspiration while laughing way too much with them!

So, what about you? Any podcast you love? One always has time for new podcasts right!