Knitting really is a superpower, read on for what I can do.

Saturday morning cartoon mice and all the lovely cheese in the world are the inspiration for this perfectly cheesy mitten knitting pattern

The term “meme” was created by evolutionary scientist Richard Dawson in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene. I was introduced to the idea in the late 80’s as an Anthropology student in university. His concept is that cultural ideas evolve much like biological genes taking on a variety of forms such as skills, behaviors, phrases, and even fashion. The replication and transmission of a meme occurs when one person copies cultural information creating a meme from another person or

Its no surprise in my mind that the Bull has been one of the most enduring symbols across ancient civilizations, representing fertility, strength, and power. For most of us the closest we will ever get to a bull is in the stadium seats of a rodeo. The bull I remember most was growing up in the country, one of our neighbours had a dairy farm and they had a Friesen bull they called Shorty, complete with a ring through his nose. I don’t know how he got that name because he was

A few days ago I just finished a volunteer shift at the Calgary Reads Big Book Sale, an amazing event held every spring for the last over a decade. A wonderful group of volunteers collects over 200,000 donated books, then sorts them for the sale, all the proceeds going to programs for children’s literacy and all completed within a few weeks. As a former operations director and long-time volunteer, I can fully appreciate all of the planning, organization and management that go

HOLD FAST Sailor My son is a sailor. And yes, he has tattoos. Sailor tattoos. People everywhere sport tattoos today, including soccer moms but it wasn’t always so. In my world growing up you only had tattoos if you were a sailor, in a biker gang or some kind of circus freak. Nobody respectable would have a tattoo. Now where I currently live in Calgary, famous for it’s cowboy culture has over 100 tattoo studios and hosts tattoo festivals that bring in hundreds of guest artist

I am often asked, even by other knitters, how long does it take to make that? I might be on the bus working on a scarf or a hat. Often, it’s the follow up question to did you make that sweater you are wearing? Yes, I did. Here it comes… oh, how long did that take you? Work in progress - Dancing Rats sweater I don’t mind the question; in fact, I’m flattered. Someone noticed and cared enough or was curious enough to ask. It’s just that it’s not easy to answer. “Well, it depen

A knit mitten pattern inspired by the origin story of Aries the Ram, first sign of the Zodiac

Ladybird / Ladybug fingerless gloves, the fourth in a series of bug glove knitting patterns and my favourite so far

The first bug glove design was a Stag beetle, a bug that I liked. The second bug glove design was a Weevil, a bug that I did not like so much. For the third bug glove design I chose a beetle that is worshipped as a God, Khepri the Scarab, aka the dung beetle. Scarabaeus Sacer fingerless gloves Scarab beetles as an insect class family Scarabaeidae have over 35,000 species. It always astounds me when I find these staggering numbers when doing research. When I think “Scarab” I

Weevil fingerless bug gloves The first bug glove that I designed was a Stag beetle. That design was not a huge challenge because of course I like them. Big, shiny with cool antler-like mandibles hanging out in forests, what’s not to like? For the second bug glove design I thought I would try moving out of my comfort zone and do an insect that I didn’t like so much. Out of the hundreds of thousands of bugs out there what would be next? I quickly ruled out centipedes (although

If you’re anything like me, you probably have a love / hate relationship with bugs. I say bugs because for me it includes all manner of creepy crawlies, with or without wings and regardless of how many legs. (Except for spiders – spiders are not bugs; they’re spiders.) Most bugs don’t bug me. I love to see bees and dragonflies, hovering in the garden, ladybugs on flowers and hear the drone of cicadas. But then I will mercilessly end the life of mosquitoes, flies or wasps if t

If its Black – Fight back If its Brown – Lie down If its White – Say Goodnight! Aurora Bear mittens I always loved this little poem from my childhood. It’s simplistic, as a meeting with a bear in the wild can have complex variables, what kind of bear? where are you? is it a momma with cubs? are you holding a tasty salmon? Raised in the country in Southern Ontario, black bears were a common site, especially in the fall in an abandoned apple orchard near our home, feasting on f

Beer Pint Mittens - Why not? Because I wanted to keep my designs fresh and challenge myself, I asked my kids (young adults actually) what they would want to see. Much to my surprise they gave me quite an extensive list of possibilities. Some I expected, but many were amazing things I doubt I ever would have thought of. Beer mittens is one of them. It piqued my curiosity and challenge accepted I started doing research. First was searching the internet to see what other people

Sunflower and Bumblebee Sunflowers are magic. In a single season they can grow a towering 10ft tall from a seed smaller than your pinkie fingernail with flowers that bloom the size of dinner plates. Their bright yellow and rich brown faces follow the sun, which yes, many flowers do, but with sunflower blooms being so large you can almost see them move. And of course there is also their special relationship with bees. Sunflowers seem to not only lure many bees to hang out on

Once upon a time there was a little boy who loved pirates. Now this is not really odd nowadays but we are talking pre-POTC here. So although the other kids got to wear t-shirts and backpacks with their favorite superheroes, firetrucks, ponies or princesses, it was really hard to find anything with pirates. We got really good at making do with paper eye patches, cardboard swords, striped t-shirts, bandannas and painted on moustaches. When winter came and the pirate obsessio

Gardening has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My first garden-centric memories are of my Grandpa and his very...

Knit up a pair of these Strawberry Cow Fingerless gloves and be prepared for everyone you know to go "WOW!!!"

Such a great quote. I agree completely. I found a fairly recent survey on the internet listing the top 25 answers to that age old...

Some of my favorite things in this world are a good story, and labyrinths. The Minotaur of Greek mythos captures both perfectly. Its...