Creepy Santa from the Stanley Park Train

Somehow this year I had dreams of sitting in front of my tree and sipping cocoa with my little family. Instead I mostly find myself running around after Hunter crying ‘PLEASE don’t break that oranment!’ and moving to the floor of the house without a tree….. Ah well, just because things aren’t as envisioned doesn’t mean they are bad, just different. Instead of trying to sit quietly we went to Van Dusen Gardens where Hunter could run around and I could sip spiced apple cider and admire the lights.

On the knitting front I’ve mostly been working on some new designs and I’ve finished my Christmas exchange knitting, but neglected to take photographs of some of them before I sent them off (failure). The only piece I’ve got a picture of is my Puerperium for Mad Dog. It’s a priceless electric pink (Tosh DK in colourway Poprocks) and it’s going to have some baby appropriate skull and crossbone buttons. I love this pattern but it’s really oddly written. There are charts where there should be brackets (this might not make sense but if you saw the pattern you would know what I mean). I’ve knit it twice now and I can definitely see knitting it up a few more times in my future! I know it looks a little dress-like. I was knitting away thinking ‘Mad Dog is a little long for her age….’ and when I looked up I had knit a bit of a dress but I think it will look adorable over leggings so I’m just going to add some short sleeves and it’ll be done!

I have waited so long for this space to call my very own and now that it’s here I find the process of organizing it rather daunting. First of all there is A LOT more stuff than I remember having. Yarn was coming out of every room of our old apartment and now that I can see it all in it’s shining glory I have to take a good hard look at my serious yarn problem (although of course it was rather inspiring at the same time so you win some you lose some). Add that to the number of half finished quilts and boy, it’s really something to behold. Of course I don’t really restrict myself to 2 types of crafting. I make cards, collages, scrapbooks, friendship bracelets, cross stitch and any number of other random crafts, each of which has it’s own array of supplies and leftovers. It’s a wonderful life to lead with so much creation in it but it’s a tough one to organize. Slowly but surely!

Onto some great finished projects I have been working on for the last couple of weeks:

Stag Scarf: Patter revamps are coming soon!

Hunter Hat (for who, I will never tell!)

Habitat by Brooklyn Tweed

Mistake Rib Scarf from the Purlbee

I can’t wait to send these babies off to their happy recipients! For those who want to know the Stag Scarf was knit in Spud and Chloe Outs (2 skeins), the Hunter hat was knit in Madelinetosh Vintage colourway Twig (1 skein), the Habitat Hat was knit with Louet Gems Worsted (1 and a bit skeins), and the Mistake Rib Scarf was knit with Madelinetosh Vintage in Norway Spruce (2 skeins).

It’s a space to call my own, it’s amazing. I haven’t quite finished it yet but I promise pictures very soon. I have a little bookcase that is dedicated just to crafting books and magazines, how great is that! Everything in one room with a desk, my sewing machine, and shelves of crafting supplies. It’s a little bit like heaven I imagine…..I look forward to being able to leave my crafts that aren’t finished out and about, instead of constantly packing them away and taking them back out. It’s a wonderful thing. There’s a small closet in the room but I have to save some space for hundreds of copies of ’9 Months of Knitting’. Our initial small run has sold out so we are excitedly expanding.

I’m also doing a truckload of Christmas knitting, doing some pattern re-formatting, and awaiting a couple of yarn shipments. Life is very good indeed and I will keep you posted!

m apartment and it was a rather sad goodbye. Gary and I lived there for 6 years and I was somewhat surprised to find I was really going to miss that place! We are moving into bigger and better digs but I thought I would share a few memories

Burnaby Mountain

Crazy Weather! 

Lots of Yarn and Crafting

It’s so nice to knit up baby things and it is especially great in the teeny tiny sizes, Hunter is getting too big! I was even more enthusiastic to knit teeny tiny things to a fellow crafter (Mummy to be is a sewer/sewist). First I finished the Puerperium Cardigan, possibly the most tiny adorable thing I’ve ever knit. I dubbed this one Peanut Butter Cup for obvious reasons.

Then I thought, let’s get nuts! A while ago Ann sent me this link to an adorable grampa cardigan knit up in Madelinetosh Merino DK colourway Plaid Blanket. I had a copycat moment in which I had to knit it!

It seemed that the 2 cardigans were not quite a complete package though so I added some booties (pattern forthcoming in our next books!) and a Hunter Hat (Hutner insisted I put it in).

All four knits went over quite well at gift opening time and I can’t wait to see them on the new one in January!

I’m proud to announce that I will not only be selling my yarn and the new book at Bird on a Wire on main, but I will be their featured Artist in the Window this weekend. That means you can come and chat (I’ll probably be working on my Maile cardigan, in Gourmet Sock Berry Picking) but I’ll sign your book too!

Bird on a Wire is a shop containing arts and crafts made entirely by talented local individuals. There is something new and beautiful every time I go in! I can be found there this Saturday between 11 and 4 so come on by and check it out!

Reminder: The Back to School Sale ends on Saturday so take advantage of some free shipping!

It has been a wild ride but the book is finally ready to go and launching on September 30th!!! Urban Yarns is having a party at 7pm so I hope to see you there! If you’re not in town you will be able to find the PDF version of the book as well as individual patterns for sale here on the Gourmet Crafter blog, at www.tincanknits.com, and of course on Ravelry. You will also be able to get the physical copy of the book at our etsy shop, I’ll have all the details the second they are ready.

I’d also like to introduce a free pattern from our book, just to whet your appetite. This hat is part of an adorable little set, you can find the sweater pattern in the book, or as an individual pattern on the 30th. You can download the i-heart-rainbow-hat here and if you wanna check out the details on Ravelry you can go here.

Let me take you all through a little of my journey to this fantastic outcome….

A little over a year ago (OK like a year and a half) Emily and I got to talking and we said to ourselves, let’s write a book! We were both already designing knitwear and we were both interested in designing some baby knits so a plan was hatched. We brainstormed and sketched and came up with a tentative game plan. We were well on our way, even with Emily living on the island and me living in Burnaby. No problem, we have email, it’s not too hard to walk on the ferry, and if all else fails there are always long distance phone calls right? No problem.

Then I was pregnant with Hunter and COULDN’T KNIT FOR 4 MONTHS! It was a rough time and knitting made me feel dizzy and ill. So that gave us a bit of a setback. Over on the island Emily was working hard as an architect and our design work hit the back burner for a bit. Once I was back to knitting I headed to the island and after a weekend of more brainstorming and ironing out details things were back on track! Then Hunter was born and Emily moved to the UK, another couple of minor setbacks to the book. We weren’t going to let anything stop up this time though, we kept at it. There was lots more work to do than we originally anticipated and we had to figure out (with the help of Ann) how to publish our book ourselves. There was photographing, re-photographing, knitting, re-knitting, testing, layouts, writing, websites, and much much more. It was overwhelming but Emily kept her head at least.

So that’s our book story and we are finally ready to say: here is our new knitting book, Nine Months of Knitting. It’s full of cute and quirky baby knits and a few knits for the whole family. We hope you enjoy!

In addition to free shipping I’ve got 5 new colourways: Lake Louise, Cape Breton Sunflower, Berry Picking, Lost Lake, and Urban Outdoors. These five are available in both Cashmere and Sock at Urban Yarns and the sock is available on etsy. If you are looking for worsted weight or cashmere via etsy, just drop me a line and I can dye some up alexaudeman@gmail.com. I believe introductions are in order:

Berry picking is an all time favorite summer activity. First strawberries and raspberries, then blueberries! A freezer full of berries and a cupboard full of jam to last the winter!

Urban Outdoors: Granville Island is a place with a very interesting pallette. From the industrial greys to the spunky primary colours. My favorite spot is the meeting of metal and fun at this bright yellow door.

While Honeymooning in the east my new hubby and I came across the most beautiful field of sunflowers at sunset one day. The golden yellow of this yarn is flecked with brown to represent the sunflower seeds.

Lost Lake is a happening place in the heat of the Whistler summer. Ski bums trade in their snowsuits for swimsuits and take a dip in the lake!

The magestic Lake Louise is nestled in the rocky mountains. It’s glacier fed waters are a unique shade of grey-blue-green, a destination must!

It’s late at night as I write this so I don’t have any great pics to pass on but I thought I would let everyone know there will be a Gourmet Crafter Yarn update shortly and some lovely FO’s! I’m working my way through a blocking queue right now so things feel like they are getting done really quickly even though they have been sitting and waiting for me to get out some blocking boards and pins! What a procrastinator!