Three Reasons to Shop the Neighbourhood

Have you seen the advertisements for the Yellow Pages "Shop the Neighbourhood" campaign? Here's the description on their website: "On November 28, 2015, Canadians nationwide will be encouraged to make a local purchases and take advantage of exclusive event day deals offered by businesses in their neighbourhoods."

We love the idea of shopping local: small businesses are an important part of the local economy, although they do not garner the same headlines given to large companies or government offices moving into town.

Shelagh and I aren't a bricks-and-mortar store, but we do consider ourselves to be a small business. So here are our top three reasons to support local businesses this weekend:

1. Support larger industries. Small business provide support for other larger industries in a town as well as goods and services for the local population. Everything from coffee shops and restaurants, taxi services, and auto parts provide much-needed support for any larger offices and industries in town.
2. Provide job opportunities. Small businesses offer job opportunities for locals, even family-owned and -operated businesses often need help if they are growing. I think many of us started working in high school for a locally owned restaurant or fast-food place. Or perhaps in a small retail store. Many of these are small businesses and if you worked for one, you were part of the small business family.
3. Add character and community. Small businesses add to the character and sense of community in their towns. Have you heard your neighbours talk about not feeling a sense of community? Do you wish there were more character where you live? Figure out where you spend your hard-earned cash in your town: Is it at a bakery, toy store, boutique, or auto shop? Or a bunch of big box stores? Maybe a mix of both? However you normally shop, your patterns will show you what kind of community you want.

I like to think Shelagh and I participate in shopping local throughout the year. We love yarn--in case you missed that tidbit of information!--and we love going to our local yarn store, Soper Creek Yarn Store; visiting fibre festivals, where many indie dyers attend to sell their finished yarns; or even shopping online to find great yarns. We purposely look for Canadian artisan or indie dyers (shout out to Fleece Artist, IndigoDragonfly, and Sweet Georgia Yarns) and also some local dyers (thank you Yarn Enabler, The Yarn Therapist, and The Cozy Knitter).

We love being part of the indie, hand-making community: it's a fun and creative group of women (mostly) who support and encourage one another.

That's the community I want.

Have fun shopping local on the 28th!

FO Friday - Yoga Socks are Done!

You might recall that I started another pair of yoga socks a while back. I was inspired by my friend Wendy, who was beginning her first pair of yoga socks back in April. She told me about the Karma Socks initiative for The Hospital for Sick Children (aka Sick Kids). This initiative is to bring yoga to teens going through cancer treatments. And I also heard from our local yarn store about this Karma Project: knit and donate a pair (or two) of yoga socks for the teens.

What a brilliant idea! As an emerging yoga teacher (as is Wendy) and avid knitter, this seemed like the perfect meshing of my two loves . . . and to support young people going through cancer treatments, well, I'm there.

Although I used some stash sock yarn and not the yarn suggested, I did use the pattern . . . and I modified it. So, now I'm done and gave the socks to Shelagh to bring to Knit Night for the store to send along to the hospital.

My wish is for the wearer to accomplish Vrsksasana or Tree Pose. I love this pose because I feel simultaneously rooted and ready to take flight. I send my heartfelt wish for health and happiness and love and joy for the wearer. Above, I'm demonstrating a version of Tree Pose that shows off these fun socks knit with love.

FO Friday - Shades of Gray Infinity Scarf

Silver, steel, and charcoal altogether in one snuggly scarf and set off by a lovely wine-coloured edge.

Let's face it, knitting brings so many wonderful pleasures: it's relaxing (when it's going well!), it's creative, and it's social (how many of you belong to the Knitting Club in your local yarn store?). But no matter how much you already know, there's always more to learn. I love that! 

This project started after I found three skeins, each of a different shade of gray, in our local yarn store They were gorgeous and the softest yarn ever. I knew I had to have them. The yarn is a blend of 70% alpaca and 20% bamboo. It has the best of both those fibres: Incredible softness and springiness (loft) from the alpaca with the tiniest bit of sheen from the bamboo. 

And as is often the case, I didn't have a pattern in mind for this yarn, but I knew I had to make something that could be worn close to the skin—it's just so darn soft! I did find a pattern in a magazine that I adapted: simple garter stitch using three shades of gray and edged in a lovely wine colour.And that book seemed to be making headlines everywhere, so I arrived at the name easily.

Because the pattern was so simple, I didn't mind trying some new skills: the pattern called for a provisional cast-on,  a three-needle bind off, and a crochet edging to finish. I was so excited to try all of these (I did practice the provisional cast-on with some junk yarn first . . . I wanted to make sure I wouldn't do anything to the lovely alpaca yarn!). I was even more thrilled when I was successful with the cast-on and bind-off methods.

I never did get around to learning how to crochet though: Shelagh finished the edging for me. So this scarf really is a family product.And I guess I'm going to have to learn how to crochet sometime soon.  

WIP Wednesday - Thrums!

The yarn project and the yarn bowl were Christmas gifts from my family.

This Christmas I received two Fleece Artist kits to make Thrum Mittens from my youngest son! I was excited as I had never made these before but had always wanted to. No excuses to not make them now!

Thrum mittens are knit with wool and roving, which is the unspun wool. In these mittens, the roving sits on the inside and small portions pulled through to the outside. It makes the mitt full and incredibly snuggly and warm.

I read through the instructions and pattern a couple of times to make sure I understood everything, then started trying to pull apart the roving into the strand sections like the instructions described. Not as easy as it sounded. I did divide the roving in half, figuring I needed to have enough for the each mitt, but was still rather thick and difficult to "lightly tug out" the required strand. I did a couple of lengths of this and then tried to "gently twist to similar thickness of the yarn" as instructed. It was still too thick when twisted and trying to knit it into the stitch.

I frogged my first attempt.

Second attempt; another cast on. After my first try, I realized my sizing had to change and knew that the adult small would be a better choice this time.

With my second attempt underway, I knew the roving was still too thick to work with properly. So I decided to ask my Knit Night Ladies about the issue. They are a wealth of information and all so willing to share and help when you feel you need it! So I asked and received lots of info: just the feedback I was looking for. Thanks ladies!

I frogged my second attempt.

Third attempt; third cast on. And--hooray!--I am almost done my first mitten! I'm excited to see it coming together finally!

Although I am following the pattern given with the yarn, I'll see what I think of it as a whole once I finish the first kit. For the next kit, I might adapt the pattern a bit: maybe I will add a larger cuff (I do feel a bit of a longer cuff is better for mittens and gloves). Or maybe I'll try a different pattern altogether.

Have you made Thrum Mittens? What pattern did you use? Were you happy with it? We'd love to hear your stories.

New and Exciting Yarns!

Well Margaret and I spent a couple of days together last week. We wanted to photograph a few items with  a "winter" themed background. Although we liked what we were doing, the photos didn't turn out like we hoped, so we'll re-take them in the next week or two.

While we were together and checking through our personal FB pages, Margaret and I both saw a posting from a fibre artist we follow in the U.S., Serene Fiber Arts:  she had marked some of her yarns for sale in her Etsy shop! Excited? Yes, we were! Amanda French is the woman behind Serene Fiber Arts; she is an artisan who spins and dyes beautiful yarns using Merino, silk, alpaca and more.  She makes a variety of yarn types: some that are 100% one fibre and others that are blends.  We have loved Amanda's colour-ways for a long time and often thought about how those lovely natural fibres would feel to work with.

Margaret and I have been following Amanda on Instagram and Etsy for almost a year, eyeing and drooling over the absolutely beautiful dyed rovings and spun colour combinations she posts. When we saw she had put some of them up for sale in her Etsy shop, we discussed actually purchasing some. We went through every item listed for sale, checking the yarn content, weight and colours. We wrote down our favourite ones.

Then we went for a walk to mull over the choices. It seemed to be the last warm day before the cold weather arrives and we wanted to enjoy it. We walked into town to my (our) LYS, (Local Yarn Store) Soper Creek Yarn. Margaret and I had a good look at everything, inhaled some yarn air, touching and feeling the yarns (which always gives me chills). I did buy some sale yarn--it is difficult to go there and not buy anything!

By the time we got home, we had cleared our heads and knew we wanted to make a purchase. So, we  went through the yarns again in her shop (check it out at SereneFiberArts.etsy.com). We ordered five different skeins.

So now the waiting now begins. It will be about 2 weeks before we get them. So, Margaret and I are spending that time talking about all our project ideas for each skein. Check back in a few weeks to see what we have decided to make!