Alice Starmore Elephant Vest

This is a photo of one of my grandsons. He seemed to be pleased to be the recipient of the Elephant Vest, which in turn made me very happy. I hope he has a few more months to wear it before it will be too small.

I've learned some important lessons from this project. The first was never to start a garment and then to put it away for close to three years, without even noting the size I was making and where I'd left off. It took me quite awhile to retrace my steps. The jumper-weight yarn was from Jamieson & Smith on Shetland, in the colours specified in the pattern.

The pattern is from Alice Starmore's book, The Children's Collection, which she produced in collaboration with her daughter Jade. I've knit a number of Alice's designs and found them all to be very enjoyable to knit--although frequently challenging--but without any errors in the directions.

Baby Surprise Jacket

I've started knitting again and have been really enjoying myself. Since Christmas, I've completed several pairs of socks but didn't think to take photos before giving them away.

I'd heard a lot about the BSJ and wanted to give it a try. I thought I was a fairly experienced knitter but learned some important lessons about the garter stitch. This was the first design I've tried by Elizabeth Zimmerman--her stellar reputation is well deserved.

Treenway Silks

Last year I visited beautiful Salt Spring Island, off the coast of mainland British Columbia. One stop was to the Treenway Silks shop. Their most recent newsletter is well worth reading: http://treenwaysilks.com/newsletter_jan09.html.

It's easy to spend way too much time looking at the details on their informative website! Still, I think it's time well spent--I learned a lot about silk care, the various types of silk fibres and creative uses of their many products. If you don't live close to Salt Spring (and unfortunately few of us do,) they offer a mail order service for the many ribbons, threads, skeins for knitting, rovings and fleece they carry. This store will appeal not only to knitters and embroiderers, but to spinners and weavers and all textile lovers. The colour choices seem limitless.