A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Apparently, so I've heard, it's now politically incorrect to say 'Merry Christmas', we have to say, 'Happy Holidays' instead. Well, that's just bizarre! Because to me a holiday is sun, sea and sand NOT snow, santa and stables.
When will this insanity end? And really does anybody actually care except the ones who think these ridiculous rules up?
I have never followed fashion or allowed people to dictate to me and I'm now 53 so I don't think I'm going to start  anytime soon. I will continue to do as I please and speak as I please for the foreseeable future so here's my disclaimer coming,
Sorry if this offends, upsets, aggravates, or generally p's anybody off but:

Minions, Minions, Minions!

Take a look at these minions, aren't they cute? Well, they sure are, I hear you say. But making them-not so cute! The pattern says to use four double pointed needles. Have you ever done that? No, well me neither! Hey, can't be that hard, right. WRONG!!!!

So, I take up my new double pointed needles and cast on two stitches per needle but how do you hold them? How do you stop the stitches falling off, how do you knit with them??????? I went to my trusted fount of all knowledge, Youtube, and watched videos, it looked so easy, surely I could do this. Nope, not a chance. I just couldn't get the hang of it so I got out the circular needles and proceeded with the magic loop system. Even then I really struggled to get it right without having a ladder at each side. So number one minion took much stress, much pulling out, much choice language but I finally finished him. But there were four more of these blighters to make!

So, I get on the phone to my sister to complain and she says hey, just knit them on straight needles and use the mattress stitch to sew them up (gives an almost invisible seam, look for it on Youtube). Duh!

Now you're thinking oh so that made them easier then. Wellllllllll, yes and no. Yes they were now easy to make but no it didn't make it easier because the boredom then sets in. Five bodies, ten arms, ten feet, five overalls, five sets of goggles later and my mind is numb! 

My sister knitted the other set we were commisioned to make and she felt the same so it wasn't just me. So in the film Despicable Me which is where they're from they are evil minions - and in knitting life they are evil minions. 

But dang it they do look so very cute, don't they!

On Yarn and Obsession

The Yarn Fairies is the little business my sister and I have begun because of our obsession with knitting and crochet. We both have knitted for many years. We learned the art at our grandmother's knee. She could knit  anything without a pattern. My mum tells us often about the many beautiful and unique dresses, coats, cardigans and socks that she and her sisters wore as children and the tunics and sweaters her brothers wore. All designed and hand knitted by our grandmother. She always wore an apron with a large pocket and it always had wool and needles in it. I also remember the dresses she would knit for us, one in particular made in red wool that had a large pleated skirt that twirled around my legs. I loved that dress and hated seeing it pulled down when it became to small for me.
My grandmother insisted we learn the art of knitting and cooking, (something else she could do like a professional) as young girls and we were happy to sit at her knee and learn but I have to confess that I preferred cooking to knitting. I didn't catch the yarn bug, unlike my sister and most of my early attempts were pitiful, just ask my dad about the scarf I started but never finished!
Then I grew up and started having babies. I saw the wonderful creations my sister was producing for her own baby and wanted some of those lacy confections for mine. I bought the wool and the hardest pattern I'd ever seen with instructions that looked like a foreign language, you know what I mean- p2, k3, spsso, k2tog- what did all these things mean!
It took many hours of frustration, pulling out of wool (and hair) and endless questions to grandma but eventually my baby was modelling my own fine lacy concoction. And so began my own obsession with yarn!
I knitted for all my four boys until they got to that age where it wasn't cool to wear mum's hand knitted stuff any more. So I knitted for myself for awhile then slowly lost the will to knit. There are only so many jumpers you can wear!
Several years, a divorce, a second marriage passed and then came that wondrous day that kick started my obsession again, I was going to be a grandma. Out came the needles and patterns and I was immersed again in the wonder of yarn. I taught myself to crochet. I had dabbled with it when my first son was born and made a very beautiful shawl for him but the patterns were few and far between then so I never made anything else. Now there are some wonderful patterns for crochet and this has become my passion.
My sister has knitted on and off most of her life, for herself and her children and had patterns to fill a library but she had a period of year,s due to illness, when she lost the passion. Hers came back with the birth of her grandchild and she knits the most wonderful soft toys. She started getting people asking her to knit for them and couldn't manage all the orders so asked me for help and that's how Yarn Fairies came to be (we both love fairies too!).
We now do what we love best and it earns us a little bit of pocket money, you can't get better than that.
And anything you get that's home made is unique and made with love. Win, win I'd say.