Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Tag: Christmas

  • From Traditions to New Memories: Our Unique Holiday Story

    From Traditions to New Memories: Our Unique Holiday Story

    This year was not a traditional Christmas for our family, but it was perfect nonetheless.

    Quite often our Christmas Day is culminated with Christmas Dinner that will encompass everyone, friends and family – up to 20 or so bodies at the table. And it all started as the smell of the turkey pretty much enveloped our guests as they walked in the door and up the stairs to the living room which had a center table set-up with a cheese board, and lots of baking. At the table there will be crackers, toasts, a table groaning with more food. There is always so much conversation and laughter punctuated by the occasional sip of wine!

    And the conversation. Lots of individuals catching up and sharing the happenings since their last visit or since last Christmas. And I am at the head of the table ready to refill bowls, pass the gravy and listen. I listen and just take it all in and I take so much joy in the presence of family and friends. I do not usually get much visiting in or get to share in the finer details of the evening, it is just not possible to do it all!

    This year was different. Because we have downsized and the space needs work and mostly because we need a kitchen renovation – the stove doesn’t work well enough to bake anything properly so we decided not to do the big dinner this year! I do not trust the stove! The kitchen reno will be happening soon, hopefully! That will another full story or two I am sure!

    So, as a result these things happened:

    My brother and his wife did Christmas dinner. It was just us and them. Much laughter, starting with the fact that they chose Prime Rib for dinner not turkey! Guess what we were doing for Boxing Day! Yup! Prime Rib! Another family Christmas tale was born. We laughed and visited for a few hours.

    Boxing Day lunch a good friend and her son came for lunch. We have know each other for over 38 years, we even shared a home with our children for 2 of those years. That was a two hour visit with lots of laughter and conversation.

    Boxing Day dinner, my son, daughter and grandson were there! There was laughter and conversation, memories and more conversations.

    Day of after Boxing Day my nieces and nephews and their family came for a quick visit – that turned into a couple of hours of shared laughter and memories. All of us sitting around the table, eating the nibbles and just being together.

    So – the moral of the story – sometimes the ritual forgets the point of the season! The shared time and love with family and friends. I did miss making my small Christmas gifts, the baubles and tree decorations. I really missed decorating our home. What we did was very minimal as we had to buy everything as almost everything we owned related to Christmas was in the back of the storage locker!

    Who know what next year will bring!

    Happy New Year to all!

    Lynette

  • Here’s a Little More Merry for your Season

    Here’s a Little More Merry for your Season

    Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Happy Hanukah, Blessings, or however your culture may celebrate or note the passing of the Winter Solstice.  I have noted that most of the celebrations involve gifts.  So here is my gift to you.  For the month of December and until Midnight of Jan 1, 2026, the Arrow Slouch will be available for free on Ravelry.

    A beautiful yarn and a simple repeating lace pattern combine to make this soft slouch.  The Arrow pattern repeats up the hat to the crown shaping. This creates soft points and folds as the stitches decrease to the optional I-cord Finish. The pattern repeat is small enough to offer a multiple of sizes so you can pick the head circumference and depth that best suits you.  The size shown is a X-large on a medium head.

    The Arrow Lace pattern grows from a knit3, purl3 ribbing that is deep enough to offer a nice contrast to the lace pattern.

    Pattern is both written and charted.

    The yarn shown is WOOLFOLK TYND! It is a gorgeously soft merino and just begs to be knit into something soft and Oh so touchable! Just like the Arrow Slouch!

    Knit Happy

    Lynette

    Does your tea need a Seasonal Cozy? Cozy Bells is waiting for you to knit.

  • Jingle Gnome Chapeau

    Jingle Gnome Chapeau

    Sometimes when you spend a lot of time designing “serious” knits, you know, practical but attractive, maybe someone will think that they could knit and wear it items, sometimes you just need to break out of the mold and play!

    I love Christmas – I love Gnomes – so here is a little nod to both!

    Meet the Jingle Gnome Chapeau, designed for warmth, but with a little “fun” added! This is a sample for a class happening at Mad About Ewe Fine Yarns. It starts next week, Tues Oct 8 and runs over the next couple of weeks. Three classes in total.

    Class # 1 – How to knit loops – link to video – did you know that the loops can be cut and brushed to make a really soft “fur”?

    Class # 2 – Basic Stranding – simpler than fair-isle, much more repetitive, but great practice.

    Class #3 – How to make the perfect pompom, and some basic finishing – how to deal with ends.

    Jingle is knit with Eco Shetland Worsted, which is a light worsted, almost a dk, but I have knit it a few time at the worsted gauge and been very happy with the results. It has great yardage, 1 skein of each colour is all that is necessary. Plus a few jingle bells and the regular notions!

    How about that pompom, surrounded by bells? Isn’t just a dream of a finish?

    I know you want one!

    Happy Gnome “ing”

    Lynette

    PS. The pattern will be available in about 3 weeks and will include a mitten pattern to go with the Chapeau!

  • It’s Starting to Feel …

    It’s Starting to Feel …

    … a lot like Christmas around here. There are only a few decorations up as yet, but other things are falling into place. And of course the knitting for Christmas is very important.

    Some presents are knit! And others are in the works. And the shopping is almost over too! As usual, my gifts for my husband have not been organized, except, don’t tell him – the fingerless mittens I am knitting for him – I have almost finished the first mitten! But I haven’t got much of anything else found for him yet!

    Tom takes care of most of the other Christmas things as he is retired, and he is an organized type of person – unlike me! So, he is always on top of gifts and cards and all of those kinds of things! And he does most of the decorating of the house – he does a really good job of it too! We do decorate the tree together though!

    I have started the Christmas baking – two batches of shortbread were baked last weekend and the Christmas cookies yesterday! And I have leftover homemade mincemeat from last year for some tarts.

    My Grandmothers’ Traditional Shortbread
    Canada Cornstarch Shortbread with the addition of walnuts.

    Every year I make Knitted Christmas Balls – usually the Arne and Carlos balls – they have so many options now for the patterns and I will create my own pattern on the balls as well – they provide a blank pattern grid that is perfect for putting your own images and patterning on!

    A couple of Christmas Balls from last year – the beaded one is mine and the other is a Carlos and Arne pattern.

    This year I am adding a new style of knitted pattern to my repertoire, and I am quite excited by it.

    They are Christmas Baubles by @apassionforlace MoniqueB. Two are complete, Lace Bauble in blue Malabrigo Lace and Ocean in ivory Handmaiden Lace Silk. Boom is under construction. Each bauble is a different Shetland Lace pattern. They are so much fun, small, intricate and very satisfying. I had to go out and find some glass balls of the right size. The coloured ones I found locally but the clear ones I had to order on line. They are from BestPysansky, out of Chicago.

    How are your Christmas Preparations coming? Are you organized and ready? Or like me, is someone else doing the organizing for you? However you roll I hope that you are having fun and that your Christmas is starting to come together.

    Be well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette

  • Season’s Greetings

    Season’s Greetings

    Never quite sure how to acknowledge this Season. For me it means Merry Christmas, not because of any religious meaning, but because it was a merry time of the year for our family. One that included presents, good food, and many friends and family and laughter, there was always laughter. It was my Mother’s favourite time of year and the whole house reflected her joy in the Season. Because of this – it is also my favourite time of the year!

    So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukka, Blessings this Solstice or however you and yours celebrate this Season of Light – I wish you all much joy and love.

    Every December for the last 7 or so years I have published a pattern on Ravelry that I make free for the month of December though January 1. It is my way of thanking you and wishing you all a Wonderful Holiday Season.

    This year’s pattern is the Mendenhall Shawl. This Shawl took a couple of years to come to fruition. It was going to be a joint project between Selena Miskin of Wayfaring Yarns and myself. Selena’s yarns and my patterns. We were the Sweater Sisters.

    Beautiful Mendenhall Glacier – those colours!

    Selena used to dye the most beautiful yarns, but due to health problems she hasn’t been able to dye any beautiful things for a couple of years. I kept hoping that would change – but life doesn’t always work that way. So, I am releasing the as a gift from us both.

    Included in the Mendenhall Shawl pattern is the code to purchase the co-ordinating Mendenhall Hat pattern. If you have purchased the 7 Hats More ebook you will not need to the code as the hat pattern is already in your ebook – the shawl will automatically be added to your ebook in your Ravelry library. This will be the last pattern of the book.

    Good Health, Happy Holidays and a very Merry Season to us all!

    Lynette

  • Mitten, Mitten who’s got the Mitten!?

    Mitten, Mitten who’s got the Mitten!?

    My grandson’s favourite knitted items are mittens and hats. He has a large collection of hats as his head doesn’t grow anywhere near as fast as the rest of him! He has a large head size for a seven year old – bigger than his mothers!

    So, I have started to knit him mittens, a new pair or two every year. They are fun projects and can be quick as well! I seem to have problem with mittens though – I always start out smaller than they should. This year, just like last year, I have made the first mitten too small. I should have checked my own pattern for the average lengths of the spacing!

    These pattern in these mittens is from my Reindeer Vest pattern. I made him the vest and his bear a matching vest a few years ago. I have always like the colourful diamond motif! If I have enough time – I might make him some dragon mittens! You see I have this idea….

    The First mitten is of course too small – so on to the next one! Yarn is Patagonia Organic Merino.

    I have been designing mittens for a few years and have several patterns out there! My first mitten pattern was for Thrummed Mittens – East Coast Mittens. And from that start came heavy weights like Mitten Love Again or Standing Tall and Multitude of Mittens as well as North Sea Mittens, Eileens Mittens (these ones are lined for extra warmth), Makin’ Mittens, Birds Nest Brioche Cowl and Mittens and my latest mitten pattern – Boldly Tweed, plus countless other gloves and fingerless mittens – keeping hands warm is so much fun!

    Birds Nest Mittens
    East Coast Mittens
    Eileens Mittens
    Makin’ Mittens
    North Sea Mittens
    Mitten Love Again
    Multitude of Mittens
    Standing Tall Mittens
    Boldly Tweed Mittens

    My favourite mittens to design and make were the Patchwork Mittens. I loved the combo of the yarn and pattern! And the colour simply made me happy!

    Do you make Mittens? Do you work from patterns? If so, which are your favourites?

    Or have you made so many mittens that you just cast-on and go!

    Below is my pithy pattern for 4-ply mittens – though the measurements can be applied to any mitten – just not the stitch counts.

    Well, I need to get knitting and so do you! Christmas is coming!

    Be Well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette

  • On the Topic of Buttons

    On the Topic of Buttons

    Do you have a button box? Or better yet your Mother’s or Grandmother’s button box? Do you use them? Or simply admire them? I do both.

    My Mother’s box was lost to time and just one too many moves. It was a huge glass jar that I loved to look through. She didn’t do much sewing, but she would knit occasionally. Like me I think that she just loved buttons.

    But my boxes are pretty full. Collected over my time of sewing, knitting and well, collecting buttons! I love buttons! They are a fabulous item that can just add that perfect touch to your finished garment or they can be applied as embellishments. Adding buttons to button bands, or as design details is the one aspect of finishing my knitted pieces that I actually enjoy! I have also used shell buttons as embellishments in many of my knits – I love their sheen and the way they pick up the colours of the yarn.

    My button collection!

    This morning I was busy finishing off a childs vest – Reindeer Vest – that I had Jana knit up in Patagonia Organic Merino as a store sample. I also got her to knit the doll vest – Mini Reindeer Vest – as well. The original set was my Grandson’s Christmas Gift a couple of years ago. The Mini Reindeer Vest is a free pattern and will fit most medium dolls or bears! The Reindeer Vest is 50% off right now until Nov 30. Use the code Reindeer.

    It was a good thing I found a few button options for the vest as I was scrambling through my button box looking for some buttons! I started to sew on my original choice of button – I thought they were a nice bright red – I realized that the red buttons were really pink – bad early morning lighting! So, I went with another option!

    Not a bad thing to have a button box at hand as buttons seem to be a little scarce right now!

    It has been a good week, beautiful sunrises and sunsets at Departure Bay Beach. Roses still in bloom on the Promenade and always knitting.

    Be Well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette

  • And So it is Christmas….

    And the year just keeps on zooming by!

    These last few months have been consumed by work, and family and a kitchen reno – which is still undergoing! And always the knitting.

    Every year at Christmas time I release a pattern that is free for the month. This year I was running a little late and Legend wasn’t released until yesterday! So it will be free until Jan 15, 2022. I hope that you like it! It is a fairly straight forward fair-isle pattern in worsted and just two colours!

    I am very pleased at how well Legend has been received on Ravelry! In 24 hours it has gone from unknow to number 3 on the Hot Right Now board! Legend has been knit with 2 shades of Noro Haunui.

    I am working on a special secret project for a big yarn company right now – something for next year sometime. I will share when I can!

    The kitchen reno should be done early January. Right now I am working with temporary countertops. Once the countertops and tiling are done I will share some before and after shots – it is going to be so fabulous!

    I hope that you all have a very Merry time this holiday season however you celebrate!

    Be well and knit happy!

    Lynette