Stitch On! Line.

Last place I thought I would learn...

2010-07-15T14:05:00.004-04:00

about a world championship shearer!

I was innocently walking through the airport looking for the gate that would begin my trek home. I turn a corner, and I can't stop myself from going into spasms of joy...

I am thinking, would they notice if I just took a little bit with me! I could stuff some in my carry on. There is so much of it, surely no one would notice. Then I thought, if I can't take any with me, can I at least jump in and roll around in it. But I did manage to take hold of myself - and did not take any fleece home with me or jump in. I did touch it and pet it some though. And then took a picture so that I could forever remember the experience.

This large display of sheared Merino is truly a fitting display for the Purely Merino storefront of the Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport in Australia.

I decided to Google this person and discovered this person truly has a passion for shearing:

Shannon Warnest SkillsOne Video

He has won the title of World Championship Shearer twice:

It is wonderful to see people rewarded for living their passion!

Projects that worked!

2010-06-27T03:51:00.000-04:00

Back in October 2009, with my Taking Old and New Out of Hibernation post, I updated you on some projects that took some time in the making. With this post, I will try to catch up with projects that I have completed in 2008 and 2009 that worked on the first attempt. One of the most exciting thing that I have finished... my MBA. I completed my last course for it on September 8th, 2009 and attended graduation on October 24th, 2009. Now for my completed stitching projects...

Back in June of 2008, Tanya and I decided to do a crocheted Market Bag KAL (just the two of us) using a pattern we purchased at London Wul. This was crocheted using Euroflax Linen. I had never crocheted before, so this was a learning experience for me. I finally finished the bag in September 2008 and just love it!

My husband has pestered me for a while to knit him a Tuque. He is 6'4" and has problems finding hats in the stores that are big enough for him. He asked that I knit him a hat that would keep him warm while shoveling and snow blowing. I chose the Thorpe pattern, but had to modify it (by enlarging it two sizes bigger than the biggest size) in order for it to fit him. I knit this project over one weekend in October 2008. I used two strands of Kuryen Noro. My husband is really happy with the end result.

And finally, I was looking for an easy project to bring along with me to the 8th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat
(Oct 2008). I decided to knit myself a pair of Fetching fingerless gloves using Rowan Tapestry yarn I had purchased at the Tangled Skein in Halifax back in the summer of 2007. I started the gloves the weekend of the retreat, and finished them on Halloween weekend. So, from start to finish it took me approximately a week. I just love the way the color turned out on these. And they are so much fun to knit.

I also have a few additional projects that I completed in 2008/2009 for which I still need to take pictures... I will post about these as soon as I get some pictures taken of them. One is a blur and the other waves...

2nd Annual Maritime Fibre Arts Retreat

2010-04-17T20:37:00.017-04:00

What a wonderful time! I expected a wonderful weekend - and often end up disappointed when I have built my expectations up too high. This was not the case with this weekend - despite having exceedingly high expectations the retreat managed to exceed them by a mile. I met many wonderful people and had the opportunity to learn more about some fiber arts that I have only had fleeting glimpses at previously.

Tanya, Catherine, Steph and I decided to take the Friday off to start our event a day early. We took a bit ;-) of a detour to stop at Gaspereau Valley Fibres and it was well worth the extra driving. We started with a bit of a visit with animal friends.

We then entered a heavenly shop. It was difficult to decide what to pay attention to first. But barely 3 feet into the shop, my attention was captivated by the only purchase I made in this wonderful little shop - some Handmaiden Lace Silk:

That does not mean this shop did not have many other temptations!

Prior to this stop, we met with Steph's friend Liz and had a delicious lunch at Wolfville's Port Pub. I highly recommend this place for anyone looking for wonderful lunching experience.

We then continued on our way to Oak Island Resort in Mahone Bay which is where the retreat was being held.

We spent the evening spinning, knitting and meeting new people in the common area of the retreat. We also had a peek at the door prizes that were being closely guarded.

After breakfast on Saturday morning, our team of 4 ventured on another expedition to downtown Mahone Bay - where we found many wonderful shops. Our first and longest stop was at Have a Yarn. And did we ever! None of us left this place empty handed. Our biggest problem was resisting the temptation to buy everything in sight. My most favorite find (amongst many others that I brought home with me) is the Fleece Artist MO and Curly Locks that were just meant to be togheter.

We also stopped at Encompassing Designs Rug Hooking shop and Suttles and Seawinds. We celebrated our many purchases by having lunch at The Cheesecake "Cheesecack" Gallery and Bistro. Wonderful food, cheesecake and eye candy (art pieces). Sitting near the fireplace helped us warm up from the gusty winds that had chilled us while walking from shop to shop.

I came home with lots of new items for my stash.

One of my most favorite finds at the retreat itself is the 100% Cotton Two Scarf Warp kit from The Weaver's Palette the which I warped onto my loom on Monday evening (the day after getting back from the retreat). I have not yet had a chance to actually start weaving, but am looking forward to soon. This kit makes warping a fun experience. The painful parts have all been done for you. Janet Dawson of The Weaver's Palette gave very clear instructions on how to use the kit. I really enjoyed meeting her and sharing conversations about our pastimes.

I am looking forward to attending next years retreat which is scheduled to occur on April 1st, 2nd and 3rd at Oak Island Resort!

Knitting in Las Vegas

2010-02-12T01:43:00.004-04:00

Since I travel so much for business, I decided it was time I tried incorporating my knitting hobby into my travel plans. I am currently in Las Vegas (January 31st to February 13th) and had a perfect opportunity on the Saturday to hunt out knitting shops. I did a Google Search and found Gail Knits - an amazing shop in west Las Vegas. So I dropped by on Saturday and made a few purchases. These are to make some 2010 Christmas presents:

The above is Prism Wild Stuff in Peacock colorway.

And this is Cascade Yarns Eco Alpaca in 1527 Colorway.

They invited me to stay and knit with the a group that gathers there to knit every Saturday afternoon, but unfortunately I had left my knitting back at the hotel - which was over a half hour drive away. But they told me they were open on Thursday evenings and usually got a group together then.

So on Thursday evening, after my day of work, I headed out to the knitting shop and joined an amazing group of knitters for the evening. So now I have some knitting friends in Las Vegas - people I can share my passion with when I am away from home.

I look forward to the opportunity to knit with this group again next time I am in Las Vegas!

Taking "the old and the new" out of hibernation

2009-10-22T19:55:00.000-04:00

Back in my "The old and the new" post from Jan 2008, I told you about some projects that I was working on - Wisteria socks for my mother, Heat Wave socks for my sister and Felted Bag KAL.

Well, the reason it has taken me this long to blog again about these projects is because they seem to have been reluctant to reach completion.

I continued working on the Burgundy Wisteria socks to discover in April 2008 that I did not have enough yarn to finish the toes on the second sock. This caused me to put these socks into hibernation until I could get up the courage to frog them back and make them one size smaller. In August 2008, I took them out of hibernation and finally finished them. Luckily, despite making them smaller, they still fit my mother.

Now, the Heat Wave socks for my sister are still not done. As mentioned in my "The old and the new" post, I had originally knit this yarn into Monkey socks. But after discovering that the socks would be too big and figuring out that the yarn did not really like the Monkey pattern, I frogged them back and started knitting the Heat Wave pattern. Well, back in April 2008, I ran out of yarn for these socks as well. However, I am short so much yarn (as can be seen in the picture below) that no frogging back will allow me to finish with this pattern. So, this got put into a long hibernation...

It has now finally come out of hibernation. A few weeks ago I frogged them back and casted on to reknit this yarn as toe up socks using a pattern from the New Pathways for Sock Knitters book by Cat Bordhi. I am knitting the Spiraling Coriolis sock pattern.

And as far as the Felted Bag KAL goes, once I felted the knitted project, it felted to much smaller than I was originally anticipating. So the bag that I had originally envisioned would no longer be possible. So, this got put into hibernation until I could think of another bag project. Finally, in September 2009, I took it out of hibernation. I decided to Needle Felt some Japanese symbols indicating "Life Energy" onto the bag, I purchased some leather handles, and finally put the bag together.

Travel is more than the seeing of sights...

2009-03-23T05:17:00.007-04:00

it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. - Miriam Beard

The reason I have not blogged over the last several months can best be explained by saying that I made Aeroplan Elite Status in the first two months of 2009 - Elite status requires 35000 miles of travel. Since the beginning of January, I have been to Las Vegas twice, to the Carribean (on a cruise), to Macau China, to Amsterdam The Netherlands, and I am currently in Sydney Australia. When I am home, I would rather spend the little bit of free time I have with my family or actually doing one of my hobbies - not blog about it.

I have started a few projects over the last two months. I have joined the London Wul February Lady's sweater KAL and am knitting this project using Alpaca. I don't have any pictures available since this project is at home and I am not.

I also decided I would learn how to do two socks at a time using the Magic Loop method, and while I was at it, decided learning how to do toe up would be cool too. I purchased some of Heidi's (from London Wul's) beautifully dyed sock yarn. The picture below shows how far along I am. I am currently working on the gusset decrease - the heel has already been turned. This project I brought along on my trip since it is quite compact to carry...

On my first day here in Sydney, Australia, I walked to a nearby knitting store and spoiled myself with several purchases. I seem to have had a consistent color scheme happening - but I'll let you judge for yourself...

This first skein of sock yarn comes from Chile and is hand dyed. It is 75% wool and 25% polyamide. It is from Araucania Yarns.

The following three skeins are designed by Jo Sharp an Australian yarn designer. It is 85% wool, 10% silk and 5%Cashmere. It is called Silkroad Aran Tweed and it the most amazing tweed yarn I have ever seen. They had it available in over 10 colors but the two you see below are the ones that really caught my eye.

And lastly I got some more Jo Sharp yarn. This one is called Rare Comfort Infusion Kid Mohair. It is basically 80% kid mohair, 5% wool and 15% Polyamide.

I also decided to buy some tapestry yarn since the I have been inspired by the guys attending the Sunday afternoon knitting group to use some of these in one of my future sock projects.

Now I need to figure out what projects I am going to make with these new purchases! On that thought I leave with a few pictures of beautiful Sydney Harbour.

Spinning - must make one dizzy!

2008-11-16T16:06:00.000-04:00

I thought it was high time that I updated you all on what I have been doing with that spinning wheel I got back in late February / early March.

I have had some fun getting acquainted with my wheel. The first thing I spun was some beige colored fleece (not sure what it is) that I received with my wheel. I plied this as a two ply yarn.

I then decided to spin some Polwarth that I had won during the 7th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat. Since I loved the various colors in this and wanted the colors to stay together, I decided I would try my hand at navajo plying. Since I had never done this before, I decided to search on the internet for instructions on how to navajo ply. A YouTube video entitled "How to Navajo Ply - Demystified and Unraveled" taught me the basics, and away I went. You can see the results below:

I discovered that spinning finger roving is lots of fun. Especially when it is in my beloved fall colors. I had purchased this Fleece Artist Sea Wool finger roving from Gaspereau Valley Fibers during the 7th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat. And since my first attempt at Navajo plying had gone so well, I navajo plied this one as well.

I have not knit anything with any of these handspun skeins yet. I really will need to find some projects for these skeins. However, I have started spinning some very colorful wool/soy silk blend which is intended for a project. Once I have finished spinning all 6 of the 1/4 lb bags of fiber, it will be turned into mittens, a scarf and a hat for my daughter. I have just over half of this spun so far. I actually spun most of this while I was at the 8th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat a few weekends back.

During the retreat, I also started spinning some Polwarth that I had purchased at London Wul's a few weeks prior to the retreat. I really enjoy spinning Polwarth. I find it is very easy to draft and makes it easy for a new spinner to learn how to draft while spinning.

Spinning must make one dizzy and therefore unable to think clearly. As you can probably determine from all of the fleece I purchased during the 8th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat, I will not run out of stuff to spin anytime soon. However, what you don't know, is that about a month ago, I purchased approximately 5 lbs of Alpaca and 5 lbs of Llama - unwashed raw fleece from the beautiful animals you can see in the pictures below. Tanya also purchased some Llama and some Alpaca. We purchased these from a local hobby farm who was looking for a good home for the fleeces. We decided we would share each of our purchases so that we would end up with each 4 different colors of fleece as opposed to only two each. So I am going to be really busy getting this stuff cleaned and spun. I blame the dizziness for this out of control fleece purchasing!!!

In an attempt to get ahead on all of this raw fleece, I decided to wash the Romney/Lincoln that I purchased during the 8th Annual Maritime Spinner's retreat. I had to wash it 3 times, and rinse it as many times to get all of the oils out. You can see a picture of it drying below. I just love the colors and can't wait to start spinning it.

8th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat

2008-11-06T19:03:00.015-04:00

On the weekend of October 24th, 2008, Tanya, CJ and I headed to the Gaelic College in Cape Breton to attend the 8th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat.

Since we were meeting CJ in Truro, and we were a little early for our meeting time, Tanya and I decided to stop by the Masstown Market in Debert. If you have never been to this market, do yourself a favor and stop by. It has stuff for anyone and everyone. It has food, gifts, crafts, wine, baked goods, a garden center. I spent over $75 in Christmas presents that wasn't really even planned for.

After picking up CJ in Truro, we continued on towards Cape Breton. Immediately after crossing the Canso Causeway, we made our second luxury stop of the day. We stopped at the Candy Shop. The spending continued on at this location - including a "to die for" half-and-half hot chocolate coffee bought from the Chocolate Bar.

Our last stop before reaching destination was at a most wonderful yarn shop in Baddeck called Baadeck Yarns. This is where I made one of my most wonderful purchases of the whole weekend. A few years back, on a trip to Halifax, I had purchase the Queen of the Waves pattern by Ilga Leja from the Tangled Skein. At the time, I was planning on using the polwarth I had purchased from London Wul that Tanya had handspun for me. Alas, once it was spun, there was not enough to knit up this pattern. So the pattern went on a shelf waiting for the right yarn to come along. The right yarn spoke to me as soon as I entered Baadeck Yarns. The Yarn is Hand Maiden Casbah (80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon) by Fleece Artist. The color is the most amazing - inspired by the color of the frozen Bras d'Or Lakes. The color is called First Flight and is to commemorate the 100 anniversary in 2009 of the Flight of the Silver Dart.

Our last stop of the day was our final destination - the Gaelic College. At registration, we were handed a bag (I love the bag itself) that contained all kinds of goodies including: a handmade orifice hook, handmade stitch markers, a Diz and some colorful Shetland/Romney. I learned on Saturday that a Diz is used for creating slivers from combed fleece.

We settled into our dorm style room, where we even created our little pantry/kitchen area:

The retreat had many workshops going on throughout the weekend. I attended some on using hand carders, creating novelty yarns and picking a fleece. Lots of time was also spent spinning in the Great Hall.

One of the highlights of Saturday was watching and listening to the Milling of the Retreat Blanket. The fleece was spun by the spinners New Brunswick Maritime Spinner's Retreat of two years ago. The cloth was woven by the spinner's from the PEI retreat of last year. And finally, the cloth was milled by the spinners of the Nova Scotia Cape Breton Spinner's Retreat

And a retreat would not be complete without the few forages to the Spinners Market where the vendors allow us to indulge our every whim. I continued on my spending spree and purchased:

a new hand made spindle by Pia Skaarer Nielsen;

some Shetland Fleece (in natural color so that I can attempt my hand at dyeing);

some unwashed raw Romney/Lincoln Fiber from Delia Burge of Cobweb Woolies;

and another find that made me jump for joy. Back on the trip to Halifax where I had purchased the Queen of the Waves pattern, I had fallen in love with the Blue Sky Alpaca Silk Shrug pattern. But when I calculated how much it would cost for the yarn to make this pattern, I left the pattern and yarn behind and determined that I would probably never make this pattern. Little did I know that I would find the exact yarn required for this pattern in one of my favorite colors at the retreat. So my last purchase is the following Blue Sky Alpaca/Silk blend. Sunrise Mercantile, from whom I purchased the yarn, did not have enough of the yarn available at the retreat. However, Suzy Belt of Sunrise Mercantile was kind enough to mail me the additional required skeins and the pattern. I received all of this late last week.

Well, this was yet another wonderful retreat. I am really looking forward to the one next year being held in the Fredericton, New Brunswick area.

Hiatus at an end!

2008-09-07T14:36:00.014-04:00

It may seem as if I have been on hiatus because I received my spinning wheel and have not been able to stop spinning long enough to blog. However, that is not the case, after trying out my spinning wheel in March, I have not had time to touch it or blog since then. You may all be wondering what could keep me away from such wonderful pastimes.

The first thing that kept me away is the wonderful week in April that my husband and I spent in Cayo Coco, Cuba.

Then, I started a new job on the first of May. I am now working for GSA as an Educational Director. I am working from a home office, so I spent most of my spare time in April and May buying equipment and setting up a home office. My craft room has now become a home office/craft room. It is now a shared space.

I have also had to spend many evenings and weekends through June and July working in order to have course content ready in time to deliver to some clients who had requested training during these two months.

I did manage to have some down time during all of these months. But any free time I had was spent either enjoying my pool, camping in our new Coyote hybrid trailer or knitting. Blogging was very low on the priority list.

I have worked on a couple of knitting projects. However, the only project I have finished during this time is a lap blanket kit purchased from London-Wul. I started it in late June, and finished it in early August just in time to give to my Mom for her birthday.

In the next few weeks I will update you on my works in progress. And I will post pictures of the yarn I spun back in March. I still need to take pictures in order to post them ;-)

Yippee!!! It's finally here!

2008-03-02T21:15:00.002-04:00

Back about a month ago, I ordered an Ashford Traditional refurbished spinning wheel on eBay. It was coming all the way from New Zealand, and I chose to take the least expensive shipping in order to save money. This is also the slowest shipping method.

I was hoping that the wheel would be in before Friday February 29th, since I had a vacation day scheduled for that day. So for the past two weeks, I have been stopping at the mailbox, hoping against hope that the post office would have left a little card in there for me telling me to go pick up my package at the nearest post office. I kept going every day and it was with great disappointment that on the evening of Thursday February 28th I stared at an empty mailbox.

I figured I would not let that ruin my vacation day. So, I sat and decided to cast off the felted bag I am currently working on. I will post about this further in a few days. As I was sitting there knitting, the doorbell rang. I am thinking, who in the world can be at the door when there usually isn't anybody home. I got up in a hurry and managed to tangle myself in my knitting. It took me a few minutes to untangle myself and finally get to the door. As I am climbing the stairs, I look out the window and see the Canada Post truck backing out of my driveway. Like a madwoman, I dash to the door and start waiving my arms frantically. Luckily, the postman noticed me. After all, how could he not notice a madwoman waiving her arms???

I was very excited to see that it was indeed my long awaited spinning wheel.

First my cat and I had a close look at the box to see what would be the best way of opening it.

Then once I got it open, I realized that I had some work ahead of me before I actually started spinning.

I took all of the pieces out of the box and laid them out.

After about an hour and a half, I was ready to spin.

Since Friday, I have spun up the beige roving I received with the spinning wheel and double plied it.

I have also spun some of Heidi's marvelous hand dyed polwarth. And I decided to be adventurous and taught myself to navajo ply it.

Now back to spinning.

Finally, after 4 years!!!

2008-01-23T23:00:00.000-04:00

I purchased material to make curtains and a comforter for my bedroom approximately 4 years ago. My husband had pretty much given up hope that I would ever do anything with that material. But on the weekend of January 5th 2008, I hauled out the material, my sewing machine and serger and set to it.

I am happy to say that this past weekend I finished. I made a bedskirt (which can't be seen in the picture because it is a sleigh bed, you really only see it when the bed is not made), a comforter, pillow shams and curtains.

No pattern was used, I simply used some concepts I took from a couple of books that I picked up over the years: Sally Cowan's Sew A Beautiful Home: Quick and Easy Home Decorating Projects and Singer's The New Step-by-step Home Decorating Projects.

Now all I have left to do is get the following cross-stitch framed. I finished this cross-stitch about 3.5 years ago. It is meant to hang in my room since it matches the colors of my room.

This cross-stitch pattern is July's Amethyst Fairy (#59) by Mirabilia.

The old and the new

2008-01-12T16:13:00.000-04:00

I have promised you updates on my knitting projects, so here goes.

Over the last couple of months I have been focusing on trying to finish some projects - so that I can eventually start some new ones ;-)

Since finishing the Clarence Border Scarf from Victoria Lace, I have also finished two other scarves: the wavy scarf and the Falling Leaves Scarf.

I really love the way the Wavy Scarf turned out. This scarf was knit from polwarth that Heidi from London Wul dyed, that my friend Tanya spun and that I knit. Being a group effort makes it even more special.

And finally, earlier today, I finally got around to blocking my falling leaves scarf and the clarence border scarf as can be seen in the picture below:

Over the Christmas Holiday, I took some time to wash the wool that I bought at McAuslands Mill during the spinner's retreat in October. I also washed and hung to dry the handspun polwarth that I had spun during the retreat.

My sink held the handspun:

While my tub was full of the stuff from the mill:

It sure made for a colorful rainbow in my bathroom while it was drying.

I also started a pair of socks for my mother, and another for my sister. These are still works in progress, but I am working on the second sock of each of these pairs.

I am knitting the Wisteria Socks using Fleece Artist Merino Sock Yarn for my mother:

And I am knitting the Heat Wave Socks using Fleece Artist Merino Sock Yarn for my sister:

I will be happy if I ever finish these socks for my sister. They were supposed to be a christmas present. However, after knitting past the heal using this yarn and the Monkey Socks pattern, I discovered that the sock was going to be way too big, and the yarn really was not liking the monkey sock pattern. So I frogged it all back and started again. I opted for the Heat Wave pattern because I had knit it before using Fleece Artist Merino sock yarn and had had great success. This delay made me decide not to finish them for Christmas

A few posts back, I had said that I needed to finish some projects before I was allowed to start some new ones. Well, since I did finish a few, I decided that I was going to participate in the Bags with Blankets KAL being held at London Wul. I am using the Pink Bluefaced Leicester I had purchased at London Wul's Harvest sale last fall. And this past weekend, under the influence of Heidi who helped me pick the color, I purchased some Fleece Artist Goldilocks to combine with the Bluefaced Leicester. Aren't the colors just amazing:

I decided to knit the two yarns together on every row. I am simply going to knit a large rectangle, and then I am going to Felt the rectangle. Once the piece has been felted, I will cut it up and sew it to create a bag.

And I think I may have finally found a pattern for the tank top I want to knit using the silk/cotton I purchased at London Wul's harvest sale. Once I confirm that I have enough yarn for the pattern I will let you know all about it.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T10:13:00.000-04:00

I wish you all a healthy and happy 2008, and a lot of time for fiber related activities ;-)

I thought I would share with you a few of the Xmas presents I received this year:

A tote for those weekend retreats or activities that require lots of gear to be brought along (i.e. ball winder, swift, etc.). It has many pockets and a large space on the inside for carrying larger items:

An embellishment center and a small tote bag for carrying smaller projects:

And here is the embellishment center now that I have started ogranizing some stuff into it. I just love the two rods for holding the ribbon spools:

I received this beautiful blue and brown handspun and some Harmony 2.25mm DPNs from my friend Tanya:

The harmony needles are a wonder to knit with. And I find it so cool and practical that they give you 6 needles instead of 5 just in case you break one.

I also received this Twelve yarn in my stocking (don't tell anyone I purchased it myself just to make sure I got some):

It is so cool. I think I will add this to a weaving project to add some character to a piece.

During the Xmas holiday, I went to spend a day with Tanya and we did some dying. I dyed the following Briggs and Little using blue and green dye. It turned out better than I was hoping for:

I hope to update you on my knitting projects in a few days.

Am I within the 48 hours?

2007-11-11T16:41:00.000-04:00

This blog is to satisfy Manon's addiction to reading blogs!

It will be a very short entry since I am leaving first thing tomorrow morning to go to Las Vegas on a business trip and am busy getting ready for the trip.

I do have some wonderful news! I finally finished the Clarence Border Scarf I was knitting as part of a London Wul Victoria Lace Today KAL.

It still needs to be blocked so it doesn't currently have the nicest shape and drape possible. I plan on blocking it as soon as I get back from my trip.

This also means that I will never have to untangle the seasilk for this scarf again! That is the best news of all.

Are you feeling the waves?

2007-10-25T19:19:00.000-04:00

Waves seem to be my current them. I just finished this pair of Heat Waves socks that I knit as a Christmas gift for one of my sisters.

I am also working on this wavy scarf using the handspun yarn that Tanya so kindly spun up for me last month.

I started thinking about my recent purchases and realized that I have quite a few projects ahead of me.

- Market Bag using Pink Bluefaced Leicester
- Fiber Trends Felted Clogs using Lopi in colors #9958 and #9979
- Fetching Fingerless Gloves using Rowan Tapestry in Moorland color
- Socks (no pattern chosen yet) using Fleece Artist Somoko yarn
- tank top (no pattern chosen yet) using a beautiful 30% cotton 70 % silk yarn purchased at London-Wul
- unknown project using the lace weight mohair/wool blend from Cobweb Woollies

And the above list does not include all of the fleece and wool purchased from MacAuslands Mill when I attended the Spinners Retreat in PEI a few weeks ago. I will probably use this wool for weaving.

However, I made myself a promise that for each project that I want to start I must finish one of the ones that I currently have on the needles.

Better get back to knitting...

Maritime Spinner's Retreat!!!

2007-10-15T12:50:00.000-04:00

I had the most amazing weekend. I attended that 7th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat that was held at the Rodd Mill River Resort in PEI.

Tanya, CJ and I all drove up to PEI together to attend the retreat. We started off the weekend by visiting MacAusland's Woollen Mill which was just a few minutes away from the resort. They graciously had remained open later than usual to allow all of the fiber crazy people attending the retreat to visit and make some purchases.

I purchased a baker's dozen seconds to use for weaving:

and some fleece for spinning:

At registration for the retreat, we were given a surprise bag which contained lots of silk fiber goodies:

There were several opportunities throughout the weekend to make purchases from fiber vendors. Same as most everyone at the retreat, I fell victim to spending lots of money on fiber and yarn.

From Gaspereau Valley Farms I purchased 100g of the softest silk, and 100g of finger roving Fleece Artist Sea Wool (70% wool, 30% seacell).

From Cobweb Woollies, I purchases two skeins of lace weight mohair/wool blend.

I was also the lucky winner of a bag of Polwarth complements of London Wul.

I had the opportunity to meet many fiber artists that were super friendly and always happy to share all they have learned about fiber arts throughout their lives.

Rosalie won the contest for spinning the longest string of silk spun from a silk hankie in 1 minute. She won a gift pack of silk products:

Despite all the time spent eating, shopping, and chatting, I still managed to finish spinning on my drop spindle the 1/4 lb of Polwarth I bought from London Wul back in January.

I will definitely be attending the 8th Annual Maritime Spinner's Retreat. Maybe I will even have a wheel by then.

Finishing projects!

2007-10-04T18:41:00.000-04:00

Seems like I am in a finishing mode lately. This past weekend I finished two projects that I have been working on since earlier this summer. I finished the Wisteria socks that I was making for me, myself and I! Finally my first pair of handknit socks, from me to me, that actually fit me.

I also finished the wrap I was weaving for Tanya.

I was weaving the wrap for her as she was handspinning the following for me, which she finished a few weeks ago:

I am going to knit a wavy scarf with this yarn. Can't wait to get started!

And I am moving forward on my Victoria Lace KAL, although the gods seem to still be upset with me. The seasilk got tangled yet again... I never want to have to untangle seasilk in my life ever again.

Fortunately, I have managed to untangle the above mess and am finished the drop stitch section of the scarf. I am at the point of starting the final border.

On the weekend of Oct 12th, I am headed to PEI for a Spinner's Retreat. I am so looking forward to it!

Clarence Border Scarf - Victorian Lace Today KAL

2007-09-13T22:43:00.000-04:00

Back in May I decided to participate in the Victorian Lace Today KAL being held at London Wul. I bought the most amazing colorway of Handmaiden Sea Silk.

One evening spent knitting at my friend Tanya's, I enthusiastically cast on this wonderful new project.

Little did I know what this project had in mind for me.

Early on in the second evening attending the knit-along evening of fun and sharing with the other KAL knitters, I realize that I have not been doing my YO correctly and the scarf was not looking as it should. I therefore decide to frog my work. I decided to frog while reballing the yarn... Little did I know that Sea Silk does not really like being frogged!!

I wish I had pictures to show you the mess I had to deal with. But I guess the shear frustration I felt in the over 10 hours of time I put in untangling the jangled mess caused me to forget to take a picture.

I re-cast on a few weeks later and progress on the project has been good.

I have a theory on why this all happened! This whole mess occurred between the time when I actually ordered my new knitters loom and when I actually received it. I think the knitting GODs were punishing me for thinking of doing something other than knitting. However, after having received the loom, the Knitting GODs have seen that I am still knitting --- not all my time is spent weaving --- they have given me a break and the project is now going well as can be seen from the picture below.

On another note, my family and I finally went to Sussex for the Atlantic Internation Balloon Fiesta. We have been saying for yours that we should go. We should have gone sooner... It is absolutely amazing. The pictures below just don't do justice to being there!

Harlot in Halifax!

2007-08-08T05:30:00.000-04:00

On August 7th, 2007, the famed Yarn Harlot made a visit to Halifax, NS. Early on the said Tuesday morning (8:30am), my husband Pat, my friend Tanya and I started out for Halifax - a 2.5 hour drive.

Tanya and I were lucky to have my husband along - no need to fight to see who drove while the other knit. We could both knit while my husband drove.

After dropping my husband off in downtown Halifax for the day, Tanya and I headed out for a wonderful day of yarn shopping and yarn harloting. Our first stop was an adorable knitting shop in Dartmouth called Tangled Skeins. I made a few purchases at this location. I purchased the most breathtaking shawl pattern - Queen of the Waves - by Ilga Leja (a knitting designer from the Halifax, NS area). I plan to knit this pattern using the yarn that will be spun from the fleece I purchased at London Wul a few weeks ago. Thank you Tanya for volunteering to spin this for me!

I also purchased some Rowan Tapestry in the Moorland colorway to make the Fetching fingerless gloves. I can't wait to get started on this pattern.

While looking for the Tangled Skeins, we discovered a rubber stamping shop, Carousel Rubber stamps, located on Queen Street in Dartmouth which has a very wide selection of stamps and stamp related products.

We then headed out for the Hydrostone Market on Young Street, where we had the most delectable lunch at Rogi Orazio, a senstational Italian restaurant. We visited the various shops in the market including LK Yarns, where I purchased 3 skeins of Fleece Artist Merino Sock Yarn. The following finds were astonishing at $10 a ball.

I also purchased the following Fleece Artist Somoko (65% Merino, 20% Kid, 10% Nylon and 5% Silk) sock yarn.

And finally, we ended the day with hilarious stories told by none other than Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (the Yarn Harlot). I purchased her latest book - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off. Stephanie autographed both my newly bought book and one of her previous books which I purchased and read about a year ago - At Knit's End.

Here is the best picture I managed to get... Not very good... Tanya has much better pictures on her blog.

It was great to have some other friends from Moncton - CJ, Manon and Dorine join us later in the day for this momentous event.

What an amazing day!

Busy, busy, busy!!!

2007-08-02T19:43:00.000-04:00

This summer my husband and I decided to finally get the pool we have been dreaming of most of our lives installed in our backyard. It has been an exciting and busy time since we have decided to add 560 square feet of decking around the pool -- and we are building the deck ourselves.

Seems like we will never finish when I look at the wood still remaining in our garage.

Despite being busy, I seemed to have managed to finish a few knitting and weaving projects and to start a few new ones.

I finished my first woven project on my knitters loom. Here is a look at the scarf I created with some stash yarn:

I have also started a new wrap for Tanya. I warped this wrap while on a camping trip Tanya and I took together just to get away and knit. You can see that the space between the end of my cupboard and the table in my tent trailer was the perfect length for the warp of this wrap.

I have finished the Heatwave socks I knit up for my daughter -- a pattern by
my friend Tanya. The pattern is so easy to knit - I just love it.

I have also started test knitting a new sock pattern named Wisteria being designed by Tanya. I love the cables in this pattern.

I have also started the following scarf as part of the Victoria Lace KAL being held at London Wul. This photo is from early on (i.e. the first time I cast on)... I will post a dedicated entry for this project in the near future detailing my trials and tribulations with this project...

Knitting on vacation!

2007-07-08T14:02:00.000-04:00

Well, I didn't get as much knitting done on vacation as I thought I would. And I didn't actually get a chance to go to any knitting stores during my travels. But I did have a wonderful time nonetheless.

I managed to finally finish my Jaywalker socks while on vacation. They were supposed to be for me but they turned out too big for me. So I gave them to my mother. They fit her perfectly.

Now she is hoping that all the socks I knit are too big for me!

We had a wonderful time on our vacation. My parents, the two girls, my husband and I drove to Massachusset with our tent trailer hitched to the back of my parents van. We camped in my cousins back yard for a four days and went to a Six Flags in Springfield Massachusset.

If you zoom into the pictures below you will see the members of my family (their names and an arrow point them out) that were brave enough to venture onto the Superman rollercoaster ride. It has a 221 foot drop at a very steep angle. My husband said "You felt like you had gone off the rails".

Pat is my husband, Brenda is my cousin's wife, Mom is my mother, Camille is my 11 year old daughter and Valérie is my husband's 14 year old daughter.

I stayed firmly on the ground and am the one that took the pictures.

Then we camped at the Desert of Maine for two nights and did lots of shopping in Freeport.

I re-started (I'll explain in a future post) my Victoria Lace Today KAL. I should have an update on that and my pool construction in the very near future.

The long awaited arrival!

2007-06-18T21:35:00.000-04:00

I am so excited!!! I finally received it. My parents, sisters, husband and daughter got together to buy me the most fantastic birthday present. I ordered it a few weeks ago, and it came in this weekend.

My very own!! An Ashford Knitter's Loom!

Last night I set up the warp. It took me a little over an hour. I read the instructions, tried things, and when it did not work went back to reading. I finally got through the instructions and was able to get it all set up.

Now tonight I started weaving. I am just doing a simple scarf with some old yarn that I had in my stash. This was just to learn how it all works. Now that I got the hang of it, I am going to plan an actual project and buy some yarn for it! Another reason to get more yarn ;-)

I just love this new hobbie. Now to start planning what my next weaving project will be...

Oh, and before I forget, Tanya's blog got me to do the following:

You Are: 20% Dog, 80% Cat

You are are almost exactly like a cat.

You're intelligent, independent, and set on getting your way.

And there's no way you're going to fetch a paper for anyone!

Are You More Cat or Dog?

Knitting for babies! What a Bliss!

2007-05-31T18:56:00.000-04:00

I found about 3 weeks before the May 23rd baby shower that I was invited to a baby shower for my cousin who is expecting a baby girl. I wanted to give her something hand knit but did not have much time left before having to finish the gift. In search of simple but elegant patterns, I discovered and decided to make the following two items:

Debbie Bliss Baby Shrug

and

Baby Booties

Both of these were quick and fun knits. I would recommend them to anyone. The baby cashmerino yarn had such a wonderful and soft feel when being knit up.

My cousin loved both items!

Home Decorating on a Dime!

2007-05-06T20:06:00.000-04:00

We recently started redecorating my daughter (Camille, 11 years old) and step-daughter's (Valérie, 14 years old) bedrooms. The comforter set we purchased for Valérie's room did not have any matching curtains available to purchase. So, I bought an extra bed skirt, and some beading. Using my sewing machine and a bit of imagination I made a window valance.

Valérie did not like the old peach colored lamp we had in her room and asked that we purchase a new lamp.

In the previous picture the transformation had already begun - the lamp post was the same color as the shade.

With the left over stuff from making the valance, and some scrapbooking scraps I transformed her lamp into a lamp she loves better than any we could have purchased.

You are probably all anxious to see the finished bedrooms. I will only post pictures of those once the redecortaing is complete. You will just have to be patient!

Happy times, busy times, relaxing times and sad times...

2007-04-29T19:19:00.000-04:00

I apologize for the extended length of time since my last blog. I have been extremely busy since my last post... though not all with knitting related activites.

Happy Times

In early March, at the age of 40 my sister-in-law gave birth to her second child - a son named Zacharie. Last summer, I had decided to knit the Trellis sweater because I wanted to learn to cable on a project that was manageable. I struggled with picking a color because I really wanted to knit this in blue but did not know of anyone that was expecting... let alone a baby boy. I finally settled on Mission Falls 1824 100% Merino Superwash. At the end of the week that I first started knitting this sweater, my sister-in-law called to say she was pregnant. From that point forward, I was convinced it would be a boy. I finished the sweater (all except for the buttons) and put it aside. I have finally put the buttons on it this weekend and am mailing it out to her tomorrow morning.

Zacharie has an older sister, Mylene, and I decided a few weeks ago that I could not send Zacharie something and not include something for her. So, using leftover yarn, I knit Mylene a pair of socks.

Busy Times
During the month of March, I completed three projects for a Human Resources Management course I was taking towards a Masters in Business Administration. I finished the course the first week of April and was happy it was finally over. I also travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana to attend a conference for work. If you have never been to New Orleans, I would definitely recommend going. I hope to return some day with more time to be a tourist.

Relaxing Times

My husband and I had a wonderful time in Cuba, enjoying sun and surf. Nothing but laying around on the beach all day and soaking in the sun. My batteries badly needed recharging, and this trip did the trick. Just in time....

Sad Times
The day after I got back from Cuba, my aunt/godmother lost her struggle to cancer. She lived life the way everyone should! She appreciated what life brought her and never complained about what she didn't have. She loved, laughed and enjoyed life. She embraced death the same way she lived life. Head on with no fear in sight. She is the first person I see approach death so courageoucly despite the cancer that was eating away at her body. She taught us all how to live, and how to die. I will try to live my life using the philosophies I learned from her.

A chip of the old block!!

2007-03-08T21:32:00.000-04:00

I finally taught my daughter how to knit earlier this week. She is progessing quite well. I showed her the knit stitch and in a few days I will teach her to purl.

This part of the post is from my daughter Camille:

"I love knitting. I am knitting a scarf. I can't wait to learn to purl."

And I think my daughter is taking a liking to blogging too.

One footed Jaywalker!!!

2007-03-01T23:32:00.000-04:00

I am extremely excited! I finished my first jaywalker sock. Now, I need to start working on the second one - hopefully the one sock syndrome is not running rampant at the moment...

Jaywalking and Travelling!

2007-02-24T12:45:00.000-04:00

Back in early January, I bought myself a colorway of Fleece Artist that I just absolutely fell in love with. Two weeks ago, I decided to make myself a pair of Jaywalkers with this yarn. This will be my very first pair of socks intended for my feet!!! I can't wait till they are done.

I really love the way this yarn is patterning, it is really showing off the zigzagging of the Jaywalker pattern well.

Travel has kept me from updating my blog recently. I was away on a business trip to Winnipeg, Manitoba. However, no travel will keep me away from my knitting. I brought my Weekend Pullover project with me and had a chance to move forward quite a bit on it.

Einstein KAL, but not really!

2007-02-01T22:29:00.000-04:00

On the first Sunday in January 2007, I decided to join Heidi's Einstein KAL. But instead of doing the Einstein coat, I decided to attempt my first "non-baby" sweater - "The Weekend Pullover" from the Fall 2006 Interweave Knits. After swatching a few different yarns - with many gauge issues, I decided to use the Cocoa Mission Falls 1824 Wool (007). It has such a wonderful feel to it.

Here is a picture of my efforts... This project will likely take me well beyond the end of the KAL, but I am happy with my efforts so far.

And I bought myself my first pair of Addi Turbo Circular Needles (3.0 mm) to knit this project on. Despite the little bit I have knit with these so far I just LOVE them!!!

My daughter and I spent most of Thursday evening creating stitch markers for this project, since it requires several.

Yippee!! My first post.

2007-01-29T22:58:00.000-04:00

A new blog to post about a new skill I learned this weekend. How fitting! This past weekend, I took a drop spindle class at London Wul. It was the most amazing experience to be able to create my own yarn from fibers.

We learned to spin some carded and some combed fibers using a high whorl spindle. I was so excited to bring home all the goodies I got in this class:

the tiny ball of 2 ply yarn I created
my new ashford drop spindle
some combed polwarth
some carded jacob(?)
my drop spindle 101 workbook

And I enjoyed the class so much that I bought myself 1/4 lb of Hand Dyed Polwarth. I can't wait to start spinning it!