Mylene Lacroix – Page 4

January 16, 2025

Bringing the Blog Back

How ridiculous is that! Is anyone still here? Who knows how many people read my blog years ago when I was consistent but I suspect they’ve all gone now. That’s what happens when you drop the ball! Haha.

It’s definitely not because I haven’t been busy knitting! Let me tell you. I don’t even know what to do with all my knits. Does anyone else have that issue?? How many hats can one head realistically wear? And don’t we usually go for our favourites?? Which are usually the most recently finished hat we have on the shelf. Tell me I’m wrong (I probably still won’t believe you).

My friend Louise and I went on a little roadtrip to Montebello, Quebec yesterday. The shop name is Wööl and it’s small and charming. Naturally, I spent too much money. I got some construction orange yarn to knit myself a Musselburg that will match the zipper pulls on the coat I purchased in Iceland (oh yeah! I should probably write about my visit to the Alafoss store). It’s a ridiculous color, honestly. I’m also not sure I can pull it off. But I’m gonna do it anyway because it makes me happy.

This year will be all about doing things that make me happy – all the creative things. I also saw an embroidery kit that I almost purchased but didn’t because of the guilt I felt over the amount I spent on yarn. But I think I’ll try to figure it out on my own with some cheap felt at Michaels – that way, if I mess it up, it won’t have cost $40! (Coupons baby!)

Back to the yarn… I also got some alpaca/silk yarn by Emilia & Philomene (which I’ve never had the pleasure of using) to pair with the yarn I spun for my Traveller Shell.

I HAVE TOO MANY THINKS I WANT TO KNIT RIGHT NOW!

I have to finish the Icelandic sweater I started for my friend Sandy but forgot the colourwork at the bottom of the body and sleeves – he wants it “authentic” so I ripped out the hems and am adding the color work now. Let’s not tell him I made it top down. He won’t know.

I then have to make the same Icelandic sweater, but smaller, for his wife. How cute is that! Same same.

I have a colourless Icelandic sweater to make for my brother-in-law. I’m not sure why he wants one because I’ve made him sweaters in the past and have never seen them on him. But they paid for the yarn and I’m going to be knitting something anyway. So whatever, right?

I also have two sweaters’ quantity of yarn from Iceland to make MYSELF sweaters but at least one of those will wait. Do I want to make the green one or the orange (not construction orange this time) one?

The Traveller knitalong will totally be over by the time I manage to cast on my Shell but the yarn is spun and the fluff is purchased so it’s getting done.

Is anyone else feeling pressure to knit with their stash because they recognize that they have TOO MUCH YARN? It’s like very time I come into my office to use the computer, the yarn is giving me the gears for having sat there too long. RUDE!

I also want to make the Nimh Shawl by BohoKnits. It’s been in my queue forever and I’m pretty sure I have enough Cascade Eco in my stash to knit it.

My sister wants a shawl but she wants a Gro Shawl by Fiber Tales but I don’t have yarn for that. It’ll likely take her forever to get to the yarn shop to buy some so I’m off the hook for a while I think. (Fingers crossed.)

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll have seen that I put together a mystery sock thing. I went through my stash of fingering yarn and picked out 12 skeins I wanted to knit sooner than later. I put each skein in a paper lunch bag. The skeins that weren’t too heavily variegated or self-striping got assigned a pattern I had in my queue or in my library. Then I folded up the lip of the bag so I couldn’t see the pattern and put them all on my yarn shelves. None of them are marked or numbered in any way. So on the first of each month, I’ll pick a bag and knit those socks. I was really excited for my January socks – self-striping by Mudpunch (Canadian dyer extraordinaire).

That’s it for me for today. I have too much to do and packing for Boston this weekend. Woot!

March 16, 2023March 9, 2023

I’m on YouTube. Did You Know?

It’s hard to believe I forgot to mention that I have a YouTube channel. I used the same name as this blog. It’s also my Instagram username.

I started my Mimimustknit channel a few years ago. I haven’t been very consistent in posting videos over the years but my first one went up in April of 2019. Since that time, I’ve posted a total of nine videos that would be considered knitting vlogs or a podcast. Most of those have been in the last year. But I’ve also posted many tutorials over the years. I initially used YouTube to post how-to videos that were related to the knitting classes I was teaching here in Cornwall. I wanted people to be able to refer to those videos if they couldn’t finish the project over the three hours in class. The quality isn’t stellar and I should have made each project ONE video with each step instead of 10 videos in one playlist. But we learn as we go – like everything else.

I’m not sure why I wanted to start vlogging. I’m not aiming to earn extra money from my channel, or to become an “influencer” (does anyone else find that term annoying?), nor do I think my life is that interesting that I think people should watch what I’m up to. But if I can inspire a few people to try a new pattern or a new craft, then I’m winning!

Five years ago, I discovered knitting podcases/vlogs. I actually wrote a post about it in February 2017. I don’t think I could account for all the money I’ve spent on patterns and yarn because of knitting podcasts. But I’m also eternally grateful (after getting a grip on my spending) for all the inspiration I got from other knitters who were talking about their projects in their videos. I recently found a lady who purchased equipment to start her own little wool mill at home. Dudes! I’m thinking that a mini-mill might be a retirement gig for me so I’ll keep up with her vlogs and see how it goes for her.

Through my YouTube channel, I met my friend Lorelei. She watched my first ever Vlogmas back in 2019. Through her comments and then Instagram messages, we became friends. Soon enough, we were chatting all the time – almost daily. Then we started exchanging actual letters (who does this anymore). One day, I checked her address in my map app and realized she was only three and a half hours away from me. So I decided I would go visit. We recorded our first vlog together. It was so much fun that when I went back in January of this year and we recorded another one. Her channel is Handmade by Lorelei, if you feel like checking her out too. She does paper-crafting videos, fountain pen and ink videos, some jewelry-making videos. It’s a really fun channel if you’re into that stuff. I get a lot of inspiration from her.

I don’t have a lot of subscribers at this point, 270 I think last I checked. But it’s fun to know that 270 people are interested in watching me talk about my knitting, crochet, spinning, books, life, general MAKING and even some travel.

So I’m off to do something creative now. Might see you soon!

March 9, 2023March 9, 2023

Almost Lost it!

Last time I was here, I wrote about my father. He passed last week. It wasn’t a surprise because he’s been “slow palliative”, which is a fancy way of saying that he’s been slowly dying. But in the end, he went fast. I’m not sure the reality has actually set in yet.

We spent a LOT of time with him in hospitals and at the long term care facility he was in at the end. So I’m guessing the amount of free time I have now will feel strange for a little while.

So, the title of this post relates to this little site of mine. I mentioned in my last post that hosting and website stuff was not my thing. I have, however, managed to figure out how to keep mine going. It took 823976 phone calls to Bluehost and $200 (CAD) to keep my little blog going. I don’t spend much time here but for some reason, it felt like I would be loosing something if I let it go. I used to blog a lot. When I went back to read some of the old ones, I realized that I’m a decent writer.

On the subject of writing… I wrote my father’s eulogy in English. His sister, my aunt Lorraine, wrote one in French. My little cousin Lorie-Anne read it for me cause I would have sobbed through the whole thing. I ended up getting several compliments on it later in the day. I had written in some sad stuff of course. But I also added a few funny things and it felt good when I heard the people laugh. Oh, and there were so many people. My step-mom said she had never seen the church this packed for a funeral. Dad! You were a popular dude!

August 26, 2022February 14, 2023

It’s Been So Long

It’s been so long since I posted here that I’m not even sure how to get around WordPress anymore. Everything has changed. Nothing looks the same and everything appears more complicated.

The reason I’m here… My father has been taking care of the hosting for this site/domain. In late March, he had some serious health issues and he’s been in the hospital since that time. My dad was involved in a LOT of things, including hosting and taking care of many websites. My sister and I have been trying to figure out how to pass these things on to other people. Website admin is NOT my thing. I’m not a total dumb-dumb when it comes to technology but let’s face the fact that at my age, learning all the new things out there on the web is not a priority. So I logged into BlueHost today to try to sort some things out. I think I have something that may look like a grip. But let’s not get too excited. I’m pretty sure I’ve pissed a few people off at this point. Big picture? I don’t really care. I just wanna go knit something!

I can’t wait to see if I can actually figure out how to publish this bad-boy.

I wonder if I can figure out how to get photos in here too.

Looks like I managed it! Yay me!

So I’m still spinning. I’m not a super-serious spinner, at least not technically. I spin for fun. The fibre usually tells me how it wants to be spun and how thick. Mind you, I’m currently spinning to knit a specific garment. So fingering singles that I’ll ply into a worsted. Fingers crossed this works.

Since my father has been in hospital, I’ve knit a bajillion things. Since the end of March, I have knit the following:

four sweaters
three shawls
six pair of socks

That’s a decent amount of knitting I think? And for most of them, I used stash yarn.

I can’t seem to figure out how to make this photo smaller. Very frustrating. But isn’t my Jetta sexy? Can you believe she’s 20 years old? Maybe 23 if they’re made the year before they’re “labelled”. She’s a 2002. All the heart eyeballs. And I love those kayaks too. I took that up a few years ago with my friend Renee. It quickly became one of my favorite things to do in the summer (and spring, also fall and into very late fall).

My sister and I have also been rooting through some old photos of my father. How funny are all these.

That’s all I have for now. Maybe I’ll be back so