RSBSY Blog

• Finally Finding My Fade

  Chantal Ratnam

  Posted on June 19 2019

  

  GUYS! It’s official! After three years of humming and hawing I FINALLY CAST ON MY FIND YOUR FADE SHAWL! Granted I didn’t get very far but we’re not focusing on that right now.  I committed to colours, I wound yarn and I cast on. That’s a huge deal for me.  Do you know how many iterations there has been of this shawl?  I think the only other thing I’ve spent more time deciding on is my tattoo… and I still haven’t got that as yet.  That’s another story.  Ash and I have been talking about that for years and she’s convinced this is the year for her.  I want a tattoo but I also want craft supplies and my want of craft supplies generally trumps my want of everything else.

• Soot Bloom - the Real Sleeve Separation

  Chantal Ratnam

  Posted on June 12 2019

  

  Welcome back guys! I have a hilarious story to tell you.  Remember last week when I excitedly told you that I had separated my sleeves for me new Soot Bloom tee.  Yeah, that didn’t go exactly as planned.

  I did separate the sleeves and after knitting a few rounds things didn’t seem quite right.  Largely, I couldn’t figure out what part of my body it was supposed to fit.  It was definitely going over my head but definitely not my boobs.  After knitting a few rounds alternating between muttering, “just trust the pattern,” and “I definitely checked my gauge,” I decided to check the most obvious thing.  I counted my stitches… and then realised I was about 80 short.  HUGEST FOREHEAD SLAP EVER. Turns out that I missed the second last increase round which  SIGNIFICANTLY jacked everything up. 

• Soldotna - One Down, One to Go

  Chantal Ratnam

  Posted on June 05 2019

  

  Welcome back everyone! How’s it going? I have been keeping reasonably busy over this last week. Mostly because I picked up a new craft which entertained me for a full two days before I packed it away and didn’t look back.  After admiring it for many many years, I decided to try my hand at paper quilling which is crazy amounts of fun.  It took me back to my high school days when I used to randomly roll up strips of paper just to see how tight I could make the spiral.  Of course, someone took that idle habit and turned it into beautiful artwork. 

  The first time I saw it done was on a beautifully crafted card in Papyrus and every single time I’ve seen it done since, I’ve been intrigued, wondering if I could make that. After watching a bunch of video’s last week I finally caved and bought some supplies and tried my hand at it.  I made these super cute flowers which my mom immediately claimed. Not knowing what she would do with them I glued some magnets on the back which she immediately put on her fridge.  As soon as I saw them I laughed and thought, wow moms really will put your art on their fridge no matter how old you get.

• PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY 2019

  Chantal Ratnam

  Posted on May 29 2019

  

  Welcome back everyone! How’s it going? Can you all believe that June starts this week? Even though I knew this going into the week it didn’t quite hit me until just now when I was speaking with my cousin and she said, “they need a response by the end of the month,” and my first thought was, yeah yeah, we’ve got lots of time and then I got off the phone and realised the end of the month is tomorrow. Well damn.

  It then got me thinking about that adage that if May comes in like a lion it’ll go out like a lamb. I’ve been waiting for this lamb to show up all month but it kind of feels like we’ve had straight lion with all of the rain and cold that we’ve had.  I think I figured out the problem though.  I just looked it up and it turns out that adage is supposed to apply to March. I wish I could remember who it was that told me that so that I could back and let them know that I’ve believed a lie for the last twenty years of my life.  I’m now trying to figure out what other lies I’ve been told.

• Soot Bloom Tee Update

  Chantal Ratnam

  Posted on May 22 2019

  

  Welcome back everyone!! First of all, I want everyone to know that I am not in panic mode.  I’ve done some math and I am so woefully behind that panicking is futile.  Panic should be reserved when there is some chance of meeting your goals and there is no chance at this point. My bestfriends’ husband and son both had milestone birthdays this weekend and I was in Ottawa to help celebrate it with them.   Her brother in law was super generous and hired a two man live band and, even though they were pretty good, I’m still feeling the after effects of it even though I was only there for about 30 minutes of band time.  The highlight for me was definitely my nephews performing Baby Shark.  I don’t understand why I find Baby Shark so charming but I’m pretty sure the reason is tied to why it’s so popular everywhere.  In fact, if you haven’t seen Céline Dion perform it on Carpool Karaoke, you’re seriously missing out and you should Google that straight away.

  That’s aside from my actual point though, which is that I’m still recovering from the weekend and it has definitely slowed my sewing progress down.  My priority now is to lie so low for the next three days that I’m raring to go for Prince Edward County which I’m already starting to get super excited for. The PEC Fibre Fest is such a great show. There isn’t quite as much chaos as Frolic and the whole vibe is super chilled out.  There is always great vendors and the food out there is fabulous.  I’m still salivating over the jasmine donut holes we had out there the first year.  Not to mention, just the other day they announced on Instagram the Prince Eddy’s Brewing Co and the Black Prince Winery are going to be there.  That’s all of my fave things in one place: my fave ladies, yarn, knitting, food and wine all while relaxing at a cottage.