Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving Day, for today is our Canadian celebration. I thought it would be interesting to share some of the history of the date & will do so now. This was taken from a charity site that can be found here.

"The first and original Thanksgiving comes from Canada. In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October.

Unlike the American tradition of remembering Pilgrims and settling in the New World, Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest.

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed but he did establish a settlement in Canada.

In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving, and the first Thanksgiving to have taken place in North America.

Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay.

At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed 'The Order of Good Cheer' and gladly shared their food with their Native-Canadian neighbours.

After the Seven Year's War ended in 1763 handing over Canada to the British, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving. During the American Revolution, American refugees who remained loyal (United Empire Loyalists) to Great Britain were exiled from the United States and came to Canada.

They brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada. There are a few similarities between the two Thanksgivings such as the cornucopia and the pumpkin pie.

But, unlike the US holiday, Thanksgiving in Canada is a much more muted event. In the USA the holiday is almost as important as Christmas for families getting together for the holiday. In Canada, this is not the case.

Eventually in 1879, the Canadian Parliament declared November 6th a day of Thanksgiving and a national holiday in Canada.

Over the years many dates were used for Thanksgiving, the most popular was the 3rd Monday in October. After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11th occurred.

Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day. Finally, on January 31st, 1957, the Canadian Parliament proclaimed... "A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed ... to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October."

The first Thanksgiving Day in Canada after Confederation was observed on April 5, 1872 to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) from a serious illness.

Before then, thanksgiving days were observed beginning in 1799 but did not occur every year. Starting in 1879 Thanksgiving Day was observed every year but the date was proclaimed annually and changed year to year. The theme of the Thanksgiving holiday also changed year to year to reflect an important event to be thankful for.

In the early years it was for an abundant harvest and occasionally for a special anniversary. After the First World War it was for Armistice Day and more recently and including today it has been a day of general thanksgiving."

Enjoy & be grateful. Peace out, Boop

Distraction

While airing out, cleaning, & disinfecting the house is probably note worthy, it certainly isn't something that I care to take pictures of or focus my writing on. Thus I have decided to just let you look at some pictures of a recent gift that I made for a friend. I used white perle cotton for the knitting of the beaded necklace & then hand painted it with lumiere paints once it was finished.

Now that everyone in the house seems to be on the mend from that nasty flu that we all had, I should feel more like blogging.
Peace out, Boop

Continental Knitting

I know I've touched on this before (likely a year ago), but I'm making this entry for those who were at my "Switching to Continental Knitting" class tonight.

The Utube video is in the entry below. It is excellent! You will refer to it again & again. You can even pause it to get your fingers in position if need be.

The book that we discussed is this one & I've put the link below. Amazon.ca is (by far) the cheapest way to get knit books (or any other kind for that matter) online. If you spend $39- or more (which isn't hard especially if you set up a wishlist), you get free shipping.



I had so much fun at the class tonight. Everyone was extremely nice to deal with. I hope they weren't just putting on a show because I got the impression that they were enjoying themselves. Okay, so not the knitting part, but the jokes, etc.
This group is also very tricky. They tried to convince me that I couldn't post their pic because they were in the witness protection program, but I took my chances, they look like fast runners, lol.

The most important thing is to relax & practice. It will definitely feel awkward at first because you're retraining your fingers & brain. This will pass & you will love the results. It's so much faster & easier on your joints & hands. You might be cursing me now, but you'll be thanking me later, lol.
Best of luck & don't forget that you can email if you have any questions or concerns.

Peace out, Boop

Continental knitting demo

Flamingo? Aaack.

It's only because of my son that I would ever knit a pink flamingo. (The fact that his grandmother bought the pattern & yarn might have swayed me too). Anyway, last week was Joseph's B-Day. Among other things, he loves flamingos. I have no idea where this originated from, but perhaps from one of 2 visits to the African Lion Safari. Regardless, the kid goes gaga for them.

So, the knit flamingo was born. The pattern is from a Bernat Pattern Booklet 530130. It's called "Gertrude the Flamingo" & is rated Intermediate. It uses 2 balls of Bernat Baby Boucle, & 1 ball each of Bernat Satin ebony & Sea Shell.


Fairly easy pattern, but I loath Boucle & in this case it had to be doubled (great, I now hate it twice as much). I'm sure that had I been knitting it in a silk boucle instead, I would have fell madly in love, but something about the acrylic one drives me to the next level of insanity. This was no small feet either (no pun intended). The thing is 20" tall & 21" wide not including the legs & those feet :)

Joseph however, was delighted. So in fact, that he claimed that this was now his 2nd favourite stuffy in the whole world. He explained that it could never take the place of his 1st one since he's had "Chocolate" (a large beanie pal chocolate lab) most of his life & he thought I would understand this (which of course I did).


This child is very special. Nicest male I've ever met (yes, even including his father) because he says things like "you make the bestest pizza in the world", "You deserve it mommy 'cause you work so hard", "could you knit ......... for me" & last week's "Come see the beautiful cloud formation". The kid obviously has taste, is sensitive & pays attention to detail. Who wouldn't love a guy like this? This was his 9th B-Day, but I hope he never changes. Gives me hope for the male race, lol.

Peace out, Boop

Einstein

Einstein:
The facts: home-schooled, lived from March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955, German, Jewish, had cool crazy hair, won many awards, etc.

Unfortunately, (although even more brilliant) I'm not talking about that Einstein. In fact, I'm talking about a great (see the similarities) knit sweater pattern. Perfect in that it's very neatly constructed, easy to follow instructions, totally do-able 1st sweater pattern for beginners & you will feel super smart once you've completed it.

It's from The Knitting Experience Book 1: The Knit Stitch by Sally Melville


Sweater Specs:

• less than 5 x 150g balls (or 11 x 50g balls of Lopi or another bulky weight)
  
• hand-spun 100% wool dyed in a khaki green.
• took a reasonable amount of time
• was a nice relaxing knit (perfect for obligatory T.V. watching with hubby in evenings or at appts.)
  
• straight forward, no nonsense pattern in garter stitch with the only decreases being in the sleeves
• only 2 seams (one at the top of each arm) to sew up to finish. (You pick up stitches to knit the various parts throughout)
• 5 buttons (I was given some wood toggle ones from Faye's stash)
  

I loved making this sweater. The only modifications that I made were that I didn't switch to the smaller needles when I had 11 rows to finish in each sleeve. I cont'd with the same size needles & only decreased down to 18 rather than 15 stitches & made it to the length I wanted. I actually had done it according to the pattern first, but didn't like the look, frogged it back & finished the way I discussed above. I like to roll the sleeves a bit & if you followed the pattern it would have turned out too tight & bunched for this look.
The total cost of this project was $15- including tax. I had gotten the yarn from a vendor at the last spin-in I attended in Port Hope at an incredible $15- for 5lbs of hand-spun (she was clearing out last years stock). The wooden toggles were a gift from my friend Faye's stash (yes, the same Faye who got me started with quails, lol.)

Anyway, got to go finish a flamingo, peace out, Boop

The Yarn Harlot

Yup, back we trekked to Aurora again this year. I convinced MA & Irene to go with me. Jack (not trusting my night driving skills since the motion of the car tends to make me fall asleep & who is MA's hubby) drove us all to Aurora last night to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka The Yarn Harlot) do another one of her awesome talks.

If you haven't gotten the opportunity then you're definitely missing out on something special. She is witty, intelligent, approachable & the farthest thing from pretentious ever there was. Motivational & inspirational, she makes you feel welcome & worthy regardless if colour, race or social economic level. A refreshing change to the norm.
(Pic of Steph asking us knitters to unite for the cause, lol.)

I suppose I could be viewed as a Harlot groupie, but for the most part, I think Steph realizes that I'm harmless, I just don't get out a whole heck of a lot & I'm a little obsessed with the whole knitting thing in general.

I also decided to take my (new-to-me) Blythe doll "Lydia". And, as luck would have it, was able to show Steph what a Blythe was (I'm hoping she's a better person for being enlightened, but she may just think I've crossed that fine weirdo line, lol). Erin (my friend in T.O. who I bought Lydia off of), was more than thrilled that Lydia got to meet such "Knitting Royalty"; her words.

Anyway, I have a ton of things to show/talk/blog about & really need to set aside some time to do so. Until then, peace out, Boop