Rockefeller the Owl Ornament

 "He was so tremendously frightened by the sight of the owl sitting in a corner..."

                                                    Brother Grimms' Fairytales (The Owl)

Rockefeller is seventh knitting pattern in the fairy tale inspired series.  The sample pictured bellow was made last year, and the sample pictured above was made last month. A friend of mine named the owl Rockefeller after the tiny owl that was discovered on a Christmas tree at Rockefeller center in New York City. 

You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry, Payhip, or Lovecraft or by clicking on this button, which takes you to Ravelry website:

 

There are three more patterns to add to the collection and then the entire e-book will be available. 

You can have a sneak preview here on Ravelry:

Baba Yaga's House e-book

Thank you for visiting.

Apron

 "Gretel opened and shook out her apron..."

                                                         Brothers Grimm's Fairytales (Hansel and Gretel)

Apron is sixth knitting pattern in the fairytale inspired collection of knitting patterns. Just in time for baking season, to dress up any of your dolls or toys while they are helping in the kitchen. This apron fits dolls from 9” and up. The apron will also fit smaller size dolls as well. The Apron is 5” (13 cm) wide and 5.5” (14 cm) tall.

Suggested yarn: Worsted weight:
You will need less than 50 yards /46 meters of MC and 15 yards / 14 meters of CC.
The Apron is knit flat, with I-cord edge and string. The pocket is knit separately and sewn on.

Bellow is picture of my two models: Baba Yaga and Frances.

 

You can purchase this pattern on Ravelry, Payhip, Lovecraft or by clicking on this button which will take you to Ravelry website:

The previous posts that are connected to the fairytale series and patterns are:

The beginning

Winter trees

Frances

Cat Pin Cushion

Witch's Hat

Frog Bag

Broomstick

The middle part of a journey

Fox Pin Cushion

Thank you for visiting, and come back for the next adventure on this fairytales inspired journey.

Fox Pin Cushion

 "Well, I'm going to help you," said the fox.

                                            Brothers Grimm's fairytales  (The Fox and the Horse)

Fox Pin Cushion if the fifth pattern in the fairytale inspired series of knitting patterns published over the three months of October, November and December of 2020.  The entire e-book will be available in December. In the meantime you can follow the little breadcrumbs of previous posts, knitting patterns and  pictures. 

When I started to work on this project in November 2019 I started with the idea of a gingerbread house. But there are so many of knitting patterns for gingerbread house, so I added a little twist. What if the ginger bread house is not an actual gingerbread house but rather another famous house from fairytales. And so the journey started with a sketch and drawings and looking through my yarn stash for yarn to use up. In some ways this entire e-book is filled with great stash busting knitting projects. 

 This fox pin cushion uses yarn I had left from a knitting pattern  Fox Pillow, which was originally published on Lovecraft website, earlier this year. 

You can purchase this Fox Pin Cushion patterns on Ravelry, Lovecraft (see the link on the right side of the full web version if you are on mobile phone), or Payhip. Or use the buy button bellow which will take you to the Ravelry:

The crumbs left behind to follow the journey into the fairytales world:

The Beginning

Winter trees

Frances

Cat Pin Cushion

Witch's hat

Frog Bag

Broomstick

The middle part of a journey

Thank you for visiting and be safe until the next time.....

 

The middle part of a journey....

 

Today is a very important election day in the USA. The outcome of this election day will affect me and everyone else on this planet in some way or another. I am trying to be optimistic and believe in goodness, human decency, truth, and kindness, but our human history is convincing me otherwise. I have to admit I am scared of what will happen. Watching the news as stores are boarding up their windows in anticipation of violence and riots is rather depressing. The pandemic that we have been living through for the past several months is raging and seems unstoppable. I cannot help but think of my family and their experiences throughout their lives. My grandmother was one of approximately twelve millions of people who were forced labor during the World War II. She has survived and met my grandfather during that time. My mother had lived through the military occupation of our country and watched the army stay for 21 years while trying to raise her family. I guess my life has been rather easier in comparison. At the time when they were young they lived through forced labor and occupation, while I lived through the fall of Berlin Wall and Velvet Revolution. I have experienced the optimism and euphoria of freedom after the cold war. It kinds of make me wonder what my child will experience and I truly hope that there is a bright future for all of us. 

In some way today reminds me of the middle part of a fairytale. The time of tryout and testing, the time when the hero or heroine has to do the required task to reach the goal and overcome the villain. Unlike fairytales when we know the outcome, when we know that the good prevails and the villains are punished, in the real world we are not guaranteed that outcome. We might not have the happy forever fairytale ending. But we sure must try and hope for the best. 

On my part I will continue the journey and hope. 

As for my fairytale inspired knitting journey, you can see the little bread crumbs I left behind and follow...

The beginning

Winter Trees

Frances

Cat Pin Cushion

Witch's Hat

Frog Bag

Broomstick

Baking

And I am off to bake and knit to occupy my mind and hands until next time...

Leonard and Lola, toy mystery KAL

As I mentioned in my previous post, the new toy mystery KAL is about to start.

Leonard and Lola

Leonard and Lola is the new toy mystery KAL, starting with clue one this week. The pattern will be released in four clues with the final pattern available June 9th.
Pictured is the yarn I used for Leonard. I have used Knitpicks Palette, fingering yarn held double. I will be using slightly different yarn (worsted Cascade 220 Superwash) for Lola. I have already knitted another sample about a year ago for a colleague from work. For her sample I used some random worsted weight yarn from my stash, held double to make the toy a bit larger.

More details and the pattern to download is here:
Leonard and Lola

Don't forget to join my group on Ravelry where you can find the coupon code and where you can participate in posting the work in progress pictures and chat with fellow knitters.
Stana's Critters Etc group

In my small stay at home world I continued on my baking adventures path. I baked my tried and successful recipes, some comfort food, and I tried few new thing. After many years of being asked to try and make the sourdough bread I have gone down the rabbit hole of sourdough baking. It is a challenge and I am not sure how successful I have been. I followed the book The Bread Baker's Apprentice  by Peter Reinhart and started my sourdough adventure last Monday morning with the Day one for Seed Culture, I continued with the Barm and yesterday evening we had the first sourdough bread. The sourdough bread didn't rise as much as my usual bread I bake using the commercial yeast, but it tasted good. I guess I just have to continue and I am sure with time and practice the bread will be better and better. Just like with knitting. My first attempts were so much different from what I am knitting these days. And it also took practice and perseverance.

Baking Week VII

 In my collage picture are: My first sourdough breads, Linzer cookies, Bread, Bread (I baked another), Focaccia (This time I added few thing on top to make it more interesting), Bundt Cake, Tortillas (my first time making them from scratch, they taste different from the store bought tortillas, and they were harder to use for Fajitas, but still tasted good), Ginger Bread (my mom's recipe, fast, easy and good tasting), and my Monday adventure of starting the sourdough seed culture, my bread (I baked it three times this week) and our comfort food of Chocolate Brownies (it's so good to bite into a warm, and soft chocolate brownie).

This week proved to be challenging for our garden. Last week we planted two Pear trees, Blueberry, Currant, and Raspberry bushes, and then this weekend we had a freezing temperatures overnight and it snowed. We will not know if the trees will make it through this temperature change and produce some fruit or not until late in the season.

Pear tree bloom

We also had our first crop of the season. We seeded the radishes early in March, in our new cold frame, and now they are maturing, and are ready to be picked and eaten.

Radishes

Yesterday, on my walk with our dog through the neighborhood I looked up and saw for a brief moment this wonderful heart shaped cloud.

Heart shaped cloud

I see this as a sign of hope, that we as humans will make it through this pandemic and learn to be better and kinder to each other and to the Earth especially.

Thank you for visiting.

Knitting Pattern for Winter Trees

Winter Trees

These winter trees are part of a bigger project I started to work on in November. However my elbow prevents me from working on the project right now so the other parts of this project will be available when I can resume my work on it.

The pattern for these winter trees is available now on Ravelry, on Lovecraft or by clicking on this button:

Winter Trees

Thank you for visiting.