Shopping frenzies and no internet

Well, long time no blog! But there's a good reason for it: we still don't have internet at the house - just our phones - and writing out blogs on one's phone is a special kind of torture. So I'm taking advantage of being in Bernice's basement right now (and her glorious wifi) to share a little of the last few weeks.
We've been settling in nicely at our new place and I'm finding the routine a LOT easier to get into than I expected. In fact, England is weirdly slipping away much faster than I anticipated and I'm sad about it, even though I like being here. I'll just have to print more pictures out and keep using British sayings as much as possible; I tried buying "British beans" here, and even though they're still Heinz, they definitely don't taste the same. Someone send Tunnocks, quick!
ANYway. Because we have such limited internet access, I'm mostly on Instagram, but even my small forays onto Facebook were crammed with Black Friday this and Cyber Monday that, and my inbox was just about bursting with stuff I was told I needed to buy. Now, I don't have a problem with sales -obviously! - but the problem in this case is that I can't take advantage of them since we're just starting out and it seems unwise to go blast my budget into Black Friday sales like a tree into a woodchipper. So watching all the sales come and go has been a bit sad this year but it made me stop and think a lot more about what this weekend is like if you're on the outside of all the merry sales. For one, I got to spend more time with our adorable cats; we've recently acquired two kittens and they are epic. For another, if you ignore the pressure to buy anything, this past weekend (and some of the weeks prior) was a phenomenal showcase of makers putting their best foot forward, especially in the case of those participating in local craft sales. It was really great to see all the photos of patterns, yarn, craft setups, and other finished products, and I felt really inspired to be surrounded by all of it - at least while I had my phone out, otherwise I'm usually surrounded by old books and National Geographics, since we haven't cleaned them out yet!
I guess the TL;DR takeaway is: even if you're not in a position to buy things - or you're choosing not to by things - on American Thanksgiving weekend sales, it's a great opportunity to browse, appreciate, and be inspired by the loads of talented people who are finding their voices and sharing. And you can probably just ignore the big box stuff, unless pictures of 60" TVs inspire you ;)
I'm working on a load of patterns; if you're following ThereandBackYarn on Instagram you know I've already got one in the time-out bin for being FAR too small. So look for some new publications in the next month! AND TODAY we get our stuff from England!! MY STASH IS COMING HOME!! (Clearly I should've led with this...I find it much more exciting :D).

Custom Crochet Home Decor

Wow! I've been feeling so proud of Kaeleigh this week for publishing her first pattern on Ravelry and for the great response she's received! In a month of big changes, she's already seriously making things happen. It's the beginning of something great, I can feel it!

I, too, have been off the radar for a few weeks. While I certainly haven't had as big a month has Kaeleigh has, I am certainly THRILLED to have her back within driving distance of me.

I'm just coming out of my busy season at work, but of course I've been hooking away in my free time. We recently renovated our living room, which opened up some exciting new crochet possibilities! What better way to match your curtains to your decor than to just make them yourself, right?

What is this...one big excuse to show yet another photo of one of my cats? Sort of! But also, Marian is lounging comfortably next to the pillow that was the inspiration for these curtains. I found a lovely hexagon pattern on Pinterest, brought my pillow with me to the craft store, found some pretty nice colour matches, and got to work! I worked a row of single crochets in white around each hexagon and crocheted them all together in single crochets. I had to improvise some half hexagons as well, so that I'd get straight edges. I then took apart the dusty old roman blinds that came with my house when I moved in and rigged the new curtains up so that they actually lift and lower as well! It was a pain in the butt but I feel really proud of that.

And here's the Easter Egg of this photo series...Marian is also lounging on top of a crochet creation of mine as well. You see, her brother Floyd really prefers to throw up on that very chair. I worked up a big old rectangle in linen stitch with a fairly closely matching yarn that I can lay down on it so that, should an accident happen, all I have to do is toss the barf blocker in the laundry instead of going through he hell that is removing cat vomit from furniture. And yes, it has already come in handy!

Forgive the poorly lit photo...taking pictures of curtains is hard! I also wanted to share a photo of a valence I whipped up. It matches my new chair nicely, and all I did was work up a pretty C2C shawl pattern I found on Moogly called the Fortune's Wrap....and instead of stopping when it was human size, I kept going and going and going until it was long enough for my window. I gave it a quick drape over my living room window and boom! It really completed the look of the room.

But, that's enough for now. It's Friday, and I'm keen to hang out with my cats, and HOPEFULLY finish up the sweater I'm crocheting! Enjoy your weekend!

Big moves

Well it's been a little...or long...while since I shared with you and boy, has it been a bonkers few months! I spent the end of September in the grip of an epic office cold, and October vanished in the blink of an eye as we sold, gave away, and packaged up our goods for shipping back to Canada. November started off with a short trip up to the Lake District and friends' wedding, and then we hauled our unwieldy suitcases on the bus for the last time: off to the airport for our flight back to Canada! And now we're home in the Great White North and it is indeed white; plenty of snow at our new home, and I've already had an hour of shovelling under my belt.
ANYway, I digress. The point is, where're the knits?! Well I've got a sweater and a cardigan on the go, but today I spent some quality time with my pre-move stash and although there is some truly obnoxious yarn in there, I found a skein of hunter orange, which is well-timed as rifle season started on Monday and I don't own a stitch of orange gear! Not so I can go hunting but so I can feel comfortably visible in my yard, haha. Our area is very popular with hunters and I want to know I can still go for walks without being a target! To that end, I'm whipping up a balaclava (gotta keep out that brisk north wind!) with my bright orange yarn, and releasing the FREE pattern today! It was inspired by seeing Tanis Lavallee's little guys in their adorable dragon balaclavas and although I don't have spikes, I'm sure I'll feel just as rad and cozy :)