Sneak Peek
So, I’ve been doing some dying lately and I thought I would offer a sneak peek at the new Gourmet Crafter Yarn! More info to come…..
Fall is Here!
While most of my fellow Vancouverites may not agree, I could not be more pleased that fall is finally here! I can’t take the heat and I am looking forward to a little rain. I could do without the snow but I’ll take one thing at a time. First thing is first, I love fall colours! The rich browns, golden yellows, oranges, and reds. The leaves are changing on Burnaby mountain and warm wools and alpacas in these lovely shades are making their way into my stash.
The oddest thing happened the other day at the shop. I was walking around doing some stocking (aka fondling the yarn) and found 3 pretty little chestnuts on the couch. Emily and I were immediately smitten with the smooth texture, odd shape, and beautiful colours. We set about selecting some yarn to match our find.The Blue Sky Alpaca fit the bill and has the added bonus of being soft and warm. Just what the season ordered.
I’m not sure what to do with these lovely colours, perhaps some fall mittens? Maybe a simple garter stitch scarf? Whatever it is, I want to drape myself in these fall colours.
Casting On
Well, not much to report in the realm of finished objects but I have cast on some lovely new ones! I have been quilting a bit lately and doing some dying (more on that soon) and it has cut into my knitting time ever so slightly. At the shop we are just starting to bring in our fall yarns and I’m trying to hold out and wait and see what comes next but that has never been my strong suit. So without further adieu here are a few new projects in the works:
First I bought this beautiful little ball of Malabrigo Lace at the newest yarn shop in town Baaad Anna’s. It’s a very cute little shop and Anna is very friendly and helpful. I have this ball earmarked to make Emily’s Photosynthesis shawl. I have seen it in both the lace and DK weights and it is beautiful. I only have the one ball so I will have to make it little smaller. Having a smaller size shawl/scarf is OK but it’s always a little tricky trying to figure out how many repeats to cut out. Malabrigo is not the best yarn for mistakes, the loose spin makes it more difficult to pull out. We shall see how it goes.
The next project is knitting up quickly, it’s a cast on for Christmas (that’s right folks, I have started some Christmas knitting, hold your applause until I actually complete something before December) so all I will say is that it is Superwash Sport from Sweetgeorgia yarns in the colourway Black Plum. The yarn is beautiful and it is knitting up great!
Last but not least is some yarn from my stash. I dug into it and came out with 2 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Royal and we just got a new cowl pattern for this lovely stuff. It was meant to be. I bought this yarn on sale about 2 years ago and I feel it is about time it got some use. This cowl is taking forever but it is so soft and sumptuous it will be lovely once it’s done.
Inspiration
I recently returned from a road trip with my charming cousin from Vancouver to Winnipeg. On our two week trip we camped and stayed with hospitable friends and family and had a blast. We a saw a little of our country and the sheer size, variety, and beauty is always inspiring. From the Rocky Mountains
To the Badlands
To the Prairies
It always feels good to take a trip and see some of Canada. I was inspired by some of the wildlife we saw to create another button scarf. I wanted it to reflect the great Canadian moose (although, sadly, the only one we saw was at the Manitoba museum), and I added a maple leaf button to complete the vision.
I used the new Spud and Chloe Outer (2 skeins) in a nice earthy tone called flannel. The yarn is a very soft combination of wool and organic cotton. It knits up super fast on 9mm (US 13) needles.
To purchase this pattern for $5 please click here. The pattern is sent via email in a PDF format.
PS. Thanks for being a great model Jess!
La Push Mittens
So, as I last blogged about, I have been reading the Twilight series, I kind of felt like the last book jumped the shark a bit but they are a fun read none the less. I was looking on Ravelry for a nice vest pattern when I stumbled across some very beautiful mittens. I wasn’t sure what they were doing in the vest category but I was immediately smitten with the long cuffs and the chunky cable (I’m a sucker for a cable, what can I say?). Then I realized they were Bella’s Mittens. From the movie, the part where she goes to La Push. I’m not sure if this makes me like them more or less but I immediately picked up some Malabrigo Chunky and got moving.
The mittens are gorgeous (if I do say so myself) and the yarn is pretty fab too. It’s super soft with a bit more of a spin to it than the Malabrigo worsted. They knit up quite quickly and the pattern was very well written. My cousin and I were on a road trip to Winnipeg and I had a pair and a half done by the time we hit the Peg. Holly, my road trip buddy, is a massive Twilight fan (much more than me I tell myself) and had to have a pair of her own when she saw mine. We picked out the lovely Debbie Bliss Luxury Tweed aran held doubled. Unfortunately I don’t have a pic of that pair yet, but I’m working on it.
My model is my cousin Jill, I asked her to make her best emo face and she nailed it!
Guilty Pleasures in Knitting
So, I’m sure we all have our little quirks that we hide from the world. One of mine (and I am quite quirky so there are many) is that I have recently become a bit smitten with the Twighlight books. I recently finished the Teacher program at UBC and I (and some of my colleagues) started reading them to ‘keep up’. It seemed like all the high schoolers were reading them so we should too. Keeping current and all that. This may have been a solid justification for reading the first one but I can’t really explain the next 3. I must say that I found them to be a nice fun read for the summer. I became a little wrapped up in the vampire/werewolf world of Bella, Edward, and Jacob. Being from the west coast I could also appreciate the climate of Forks, it was nice to read a book where it rained, and not just for effect. I find books of this nature offer a nice break during school.
My indulgence of odd things did not stop there sadly. I came across a Yarn Harlot blog post about some socks inspired by the show Battlestar Gallactica. I don’t watch the show but a few near and dear to me do, religiously. They were somewhat devestated when the series came to an end. I had this lovely pattern in the back of my mind when we got some Dream in Colour Starry in the shop. I was immediately drawn to the sparkly yarn. I am not normally drawn to sparkly or delicate things. i am a relatively unadorned person who dresses rather plainly with few accessories (except the odd fabulous knit) so the fact that this yarn was so alluring came as a bit of a shock. I picked up a skein and the Viper Pilot Socks pattern and here I am. Surrounded by a few guilty pleasures.
Summer Knitting
I am not a fan. I don’t particularly like working with cotton, linen is good but I’ve been there done that, silk is great but can break the bank, and it’s often too hot and sticky for knitting with animal fibers. I don’t mind knitting out of season but it tends to look a little weird to those around me. Plus, anything I knit can only be worn late at night or it has to wait for cooler months. Not to be a complete downer but I miss winter already and it’s only July!
In order to perk myself out of my summer knitting blues I decided to create something practical for summer. I knit these sampler placemats with the intention of giving them as host/hostess gifts at a summer BBQ (which, by the way, are my favorite part of summer, nothing like a backyard BBQ). Having finished them, I kind of want to keep them. I wanted a bit of fun colour and some different patterns to hold the interest. They are also a ridiculously quick knit as they are made with Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton held doubled on 8mm (US11) needles. One ball per placemat.
There are 4 different stitch patterns and each placemat is knit with a seed stitch border. If your friends are a little more subdued you could go with the undyed organic version of the same yarn. These placemats are a fun and practical little knit, perfect for a gift or to brighten your patio/kitchen table. Although the label says hand wash only, I have machine washed mine and they are a titch smaller but none the worse for wear. Alexa’s Sampler Placemats pattern is available for free here: Alexa’s Placemats
Maple Leaf Mittens
For those who don’t know, the 2010 Winter Olympics are coming to Vancouver! I’m excited to see my country and my city on the world stage and to be here during the excitement (chaos) of that time. Commuting anywhere will be a nightmare and I’m not really all that big on crowds (a bit of claustrophobia) but I’m excited anyways. I haven’t managed to get any tickets but my lucky mother did. I wanted her to have something to keep her hands warm as she watches speed skaters race around the track and hockey players putting the puck in the net. Not only are the Olympics coming to town but Canada day is coming too. These mittens are slightly unseasonal but this is Vancouver, it still gets cold at night in July.
The flip side
You may be aware of my slight (complete) mitten obsession. I have knit many pairs and even taught a couple of classes on Fair Isle mittens. I decided I would try my hand at designing a patriotic pair of my own. The front features the Canadian Maple Leaf and the palms have some cute red snowflakes on them. I have combined some of my favorite mitten features including the i-chord cast on and the corrugated cuff. Of course, if you desire a shorter mitten, the cuff is optional.
These mittens were made using 2 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Sport in white and one in red. They are super soft and cozy. I used US 4 (3.5mm) needles for the pair pictured here but I used US 3 (3mm) needles for my Mom’s pair (she has much littler hands than I).
To purchase this pattern for $6 please click here. Patterns are emailed in PDF format.
Gail
One of my favorite things about working at a yarn shop (I work at Urban Yarns, in case I forgot to mention it) is the creative energy that flows around the place. There are always new patterns and yarns and colourways to inspire you and creative individuals working and shopping there. They can be a bit of a bad influence when I am trying to be good and knit from the stash but it is an easily forgivable offence as I am guilty of the same thing.
I had often considered knitting a lace shawl but felt that it was a bit of a ‘knit it becuase I can’ kind of endeavour. What does a 25 year old need with a shawl except for fancy occasions? I don’t even really have fancy occasions. I’m not really a fancy person. I knit a Rectangle Shawl in black Alpaca Silk from Blue Sky Alpacas and although it is lovely it quite frankly doesn’t get much wardrobe play. I had done some feather and fan and a little eyelet work before but nothing that was seriously lace. Then I met Emily. Emily recently started at Urban Yarns and she knits the most amazing lace shawls. The first time I met her she was wearing an amazing blue lace shawl about her neck and I thought to myself: now that is how you wear a lace shawl and remain hip. Not only was it well knit in a lovely lacy pattern (Laminaria) but it was also made of super soft cashmere yarn she recycled from a thrift store sweater and she had dyed it herself. So cool.
Emily was working on a Gail (aka Nightson) shawl in the shops newest beautiful yarn Alchemy Juniper. She used 2 skeins and did 6 repeats. I had to copy cat and she promised she didn’t mind. I had a skein of SweetGeorgia’s Cashsilk Lace in pistachio on hand and I didn’t stop knitting until it was done! I used every last drop of one skein to do 6 repeats of the pattern as well. It’s great! It’s just cool enough here this week to wear it too (last week, not so much). Thanks for the inspiration Em!
The Great Craft Swap: Check!
In my great desire to check things off my never ending list of crafts to finish/start/create I have completed another long standing project. A while ago (I just checked, it was September of 2008) my lovely mother and I decided to swap projects. I would finish knitting her blanket and she would do the hand sewing of the binding on 2 of my quilts.
The blanket was the first major project I started my mother on. She knew how to knit a bit (she knit me a cute yellow sweater when I was a baby) but I had learned to knit from the books she got me. She went with me to the yarn shop a few years ago when I wanted to start my first sweater and picked out some beautiful self striping yarn in warm browns, reds, and oranges (is it sad that I can’t even remember what kind of yarn it was it was so long ago? I didn’t even know to keep the ball band yet!). She decided she would knit a blanket. I set her up with what I thought was an easy enough pattern. A simple basket weave with a garter stitch border. I did the math, chose the needles, and wrote out the pattern. It seemed simple enough, it was just knitting and purling right? Wrong. The pattern wasn’t difficult but it was an 8 row repeat that was difficult to memorize and hard to identify for a newish knitter. Is it a purl 3, knit 5 row or vice versa? Do I start with a knit 11 or a knit 12 or a knit 8? Thus my mother became slightly frustrated and, as somewhat of a perfectionist, did not wish to continue each time a stitch or two was out of place. This led to a problem because each time she made an error she would need me to fix it. She also couldn’t start in the middle of a row. She would have to go all the way across before she could put it down. These were rather long rows so this also became a bit of a problem.
Seeing that the blanket had been put aside, as had my almost finished quilts, I devised the Great Project Swap. This blanked was clearly a poor choice and had been pushed by the wayside. My quilts were so close but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. We swapped. Mom finished my brown quilt in a weekend and I chugged along on the last 7 balls for the knitted blanket.
I had one more problem with the quilt. I had finished the piecing and even sandwiched it but I wasn’t sure how to actually quilt it. My lines are never as exact as I want them to be and my corners do not always meet in a typical quilting perfect fashion. I’m really more interested in blocks of beautiful fabrics in beautiful colours and a simple design. I really love Bella Moon quilt patterns for this. They are great patterns for the ‘non-quilter’-quilter. I was discussing this issue with my mom when she suggested I find someone who quilts for hire.
I inquired at The Cloth Shop (my local quilt shop) and they had a couple of names for me. I sent my quilt out to Jackee and it came back absolutely stunning! She machine quilted it in a free form with lovely green leaves. The quilting matched the fabric and style of the quilt perfectly and I could not have been happier with her work.
Quite reasonably priced too! Since the actual quilting is not my favorite part it was great to have someone with expertise give it that finishing touch. I gave my mummy the binding and the quilt and she finished it off. I love it.
It was then that I realized I really had to finish that knitted blanket! I powered through the last 4 balls last weekend and it is finito! I’m glad my mom still has the same colour scheme, it took so long to finish. It is lovely though, and will be used by my mom, dad, and brothers on cool evenings curled up on the couch. The great project swap was a smashing success!
