Sparky’s View

This week Eva and I took a trip out to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art with my aunt and my grandmother. It is a fantastic museum with a great library, a movie theater that shows little films about artists, an amazing gallery of art from Eric Carle and many other picture book artists, a cafe and an art studio. We had a ton of fun checking out all of the museum and hanging out with the family.

I managed to forget my camera at home, I guess that I am too accustomed to Drew having his available. Fortunately, my aunt brought hers and she snapped some great shots.

Eva wanted to play with the “balls” on the birthday cake for Eric Carle’s 80th birthday celebration.

Eva watching the movie of Eric Carle stories with Great-Grammy Jackie.

Eva loved the Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar got into the cookies. How cute is that??

Eva loved mugging for Aunt Jan’s camera!

The current project in the Art Studio is watercolors. Eva loved it!

The Bourque trait rears itself. Most of my mom’s family sticks their tongue out when they concentrate. Now Eva does too!

Someone got a little worn out from all of the excitement.

Thanks for a great day, Aunt Jan!

Where has the spring gone? All of a sudden I looked at the calendar and I realized that the Greater Attleboro Relay for Life is right around the corner!

We are walking as a family in support of those people in our lives that have had cancer. Our hope is that the funds that we help raise will find better treatments or a cure for this devastating disease.

Please consider supporting our team as we walk to raise money for the Relay for Life.

I’m a little behind on my 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge. The second assignment is to create a list post. I had a hard time thinking of a topic to write about, then it dawned on me that I have tons of knitting resources that I love, why not share them!

1. Social Networking sites
   My favorite resource is Ravelry. You have to become a member to use the site. It’s free and totally worth it. There are tons of patterns, projects and pictures of knitting. There is lots of info on independent spinners and dyers. And a great community with tons of groups for all different interests. I’ve also found a lot of knitters on Facebook by posting status updates about my projects or frustrations.
2. Online Help sites
   KnittingHelp.com has been another great resource for me. This site offers videos on how to do certain techniques, from the basic knit stitch and purl stitch to more complex procedures like cabling, knitting in the round and finishing. The videos are brief, but clearly show the process. And there are videos are for both Continental knitters and English knitters.
3. Manufacturer Websites
   Yarn companies have very in depth websites offering tutorials, patterns, yarn sales, swatch cards, blogs and much more. I have spent lots of time on Lion Brand’s website and am working on a big project from one of their patterns right now. I also like the Berroco site for design ideas, great giveaways and videos.
4. Online Stores
   Many online stores offer free knitting patterns, knitting information and, of course yarns and patterns for sale. There are online stores like KnitPicks, which offers a wide variety of yarns, patterns, pattern books, even their own needles and eat.sleep.knit which offers many beautiful handpainted yarns.
5. Brick and Mortar stores with websites
   Some small, local yarn shops have an online presence as well. There are some that have information about yarns, class times and details, and shop hours, like my local yarn shop, Yarn It All. Other shops have ecommerce sites that offer many items for sale including yarns, patterns, books, needles and notions, like Kaleidoscope Yarns in Vermont.

So that’s a list of my favorite knitting sites. What are yours?