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!

FO Friday - Colorflo Shawl

This year Shelagh and I visited the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters' Fair for the first time. This wonderful fair has been organized by the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters' Guild for over 20 years. The Fair is amazing because it gives knitters a chance to see small-ish vendors, artisan spinners and dyers whose yarns are mostly available online and not in yarn stores (or only in a few stores). It really offered a diverse variety of yarns and all things knitting related. And I have no idea how we hadn't heard of it before!

A few weeks before the the Fair, Shelagh and I checked out the various vendors' websites and prioritized those we wanted to visit. So, when we arrived at the site, we headed straight to the vendors we most wanted to see. And, yes, we did buy from some of them! But we'll save those for later posts. 

After visiting our top priority vendors, we wandered to look at everyone else.

That's when we stumbled on sweaterkits. They had beautiful yarns and yarn/pattern kits. I fell in love with the Mulberry silk cakes: gorgeous colour combinations, so it was difficult to choose one. But I decided on the cake made up of purples and blues. Gorgeous! And the accompanying pattern looked quite straightforward.

I started knitting right away. The silk felt wonderful in my hands and the shawl took shape very quickly.

The cool part about this yarn is that the artisan dyer who created it figured out how to dye 300 yards of yarn in five different colours! The result is that you follow the pattern and don't have to switch skeins for the different colours--which means only two ends to weave in when done. Plus, the following the pattern means it colour blocks naturally.

It was quite thrilling to watch the colours and pattern appear while I knit.

I knit the pattern in about a week. I didn't knit constantly, but I did knit some of it every day. I loved getting to the lace edge part of the pattern, too. Very easy and so pretty in those last colours.

I've blocked it and will be photographing it shortly for selling in our shop. I'm really in love with this one. Oh, who am I kidding? I love everything I knit!

FO Friday: The Rebel Scarf

As I was knitting this infinity scarf, tracking my stitches and my rows, I started to think I ought to name it. For several days I sat in the sunshine in my back yard and knit, watching as the design took shape and how the colours merged differently depending on the stitch I used.

I love how the colours reveal themselves: stripes in stockinette stitch and bold blocks in the open-stitch pattern.

One day an old saying popped into my mind: “Blue and green should never be seen.”

“But these colours are beautiful together,” I thought. And that's when the name revealed itself to me: Rebel.

Yes, initially it was the colour combination that made the name seem appropriate. A colour combination that was considered wrong or incongruous at one time; but one I considered to be beautiful. As I continued knitting, repeating the name to myself, I realized this scarf represented me and where I am in my life. And, yes, “rebel” applies, although you may not see that if you were to meet me. I am not a placard carrier; nor am I living on the fringes of civilized society. I don't stand on soapboxes or rant against people, groups, or ideas.

Close-up of the pattern.

But this knitting adventure I am on gives me opportunities to rebel against a lot. By becoming an entrepreneur, I am rebelling against the corporate world that I participated in for over 25 years. By choosing to design a scarf, I am rebelling against an inner voice that tells me I can't. And by sharing what I make and what I think about this adventure experience, I am rebelling against the fear of failure.

This simple scarf, dear reader, represents a key point in my life: the point when I walk away from my past and look to the future. This simple scarf—using colours that aren't supposed to work together, designed by me, and lovingly knit by me—represents the faith I have in myself to live a creative life.

WIP Wednesday: Bridges Infinity Scarf

This is an interesting one, at least to me. I had some leftover yarn I wanted to use in . . . something. It was a fine yarn, meaning that small needles were required if I knit it alone. I don't really like small needles: too finicky. But I love the colours in this yarn: purples, blues, pinks, golds, and grays all spun together with a very fine metallic something that gave it a nice sparkle.

If you look online, you can find all kinds of patterns that are “stashbusters,” which means small projects that will use up the odds and ends a knitter often has once the original project is complete. But this beautiful yarn was way more than a small odds and end piece: there was still quite a bit left.

With all that in mind, I knew I wanted to use it along with another yarn to make something lovely. When I visited one of my favourite yarns shops, I found the perfect yarn: Classic Elite Yarns' Magnolia. On the way home I began imagining exactly what I wanted to created with these two yarns, picturing the finished piece and hoping the warm brown would pair as well as I thought it would. And when I got home, whew! They paired up beautifully! The brown of the solid yarn grounds the sparkly multi-coloured yarn; and the sparkly yarn glams up the brown. Perfect!

I started knitting right away.

Sparkling colours and chestnut "girders."

The pattern—my very simple pattern—is designed to let you see the combined loveliness along with just the brown. The reason? That brown yarn is a luxurious mix of merino and silk and looks like what it is named for: chestnut. As I worked through the pattern, I kept thinking of both the Forth Bridge in Scotland and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. You know those rusted-looking girders? That beautiful, reddish-brown? Well the garter stitch in this pattern, using only the Magnolia, reminds me of the girders that sturdily hold up bridges. And the stocking stitch portion of the scarf makes me think of the sparkling water over which both these bridges span reflecting lights in the dusky darkness.

I'm a little over halfway finished and I'll share the finished version on a FO Friday soon.