I spent the last few days in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and it was absolutely fabulous. In many ways it reminds me of Gothenburg, Sweden where I grew up. Both are large and active harbours. And it was really nice to get a chance to spend time by the Atlantic Ocean, and of course eat tons and tons of delicious seafood.
While I was there, I had the opportunity to visit the Handmaiden Studio and got to see their dyeing operations, as well as some fabulous yarns of course. I arrived early in the morning (well…. around 9, which is early when you are on vacation), because I had been forewarned that the studio gets very hot as the day goes on. And that seemed to be a very accurate assessment – it was toasty already.
There was all sorts of (Handmaiden) yarn in all sorts of colours, and one of my favourite parts to see was a wall with sample skeins in a number of the official colourways. Handmaiden doesn’t typically label their skeins with colours, since no two skeins are ever going to be identical. After all, all of them are unique and handmade. At the same time there are a number of colours that are more official than others, and that serve as the target for the dyers, and it was really nice to see such a wide variety.
Another part that I found very interesting was the shelves of “one offs” or more unusual colourways that don’t look like any of the official ones. There were lots of really nice looking colours here as well, that do get distributed as well, but it seems that the chances of finding those exact colours again are small indeed.
While I was there, they dyed me a special batch of Sea Sock to take home and transform into a lace shawl, and I’ve been plotting and scheming for the pattern since then. Of course the yarn wasn’t quite dry when I left the studio, but a few hours hanging in the hotel room draped over the shower curtain rod took care of that.
After visiting the Handmaiden Studio, I continued on to the historical Hydrostones area. The area was build up after the Halifax explosion destroyed all the wooden houses that used to house the workmens’ families. After the explosion they were rebuild using concrete blocks covered in crushed granite. The stone construction made for a more fire proof building material than wood….. The very first shop I saw was:
LK Yarns – so of course I had to stop in for a visit and look at all their fabulous yarns. Being Nova Scotia, there was of course a wonderful selection of both Fleece Artist and Handmaiden yarn, but also a lot of other goodies. I had a delightful chat with the owner, and she was showing me a number of beautiful shawls she’d knit up. At the moment she is knitting Citron (from Knitty) in a dark pink yarn from malabrigo, and it’s looking great. I was sorely tempted by a number of yarns in store, but managed to restrain myself to a skein of Fleece Artist – Saldanha in a dark blue colour.
And as if this wasn’t enough yarny goodness for a post – when I got back home last night there was a package from Knitting Iceland awaiting me. It contained a sample of their lace yarn – “Love Story” which will be available this fall. Right now it’s a natural white, but I’m told that it will be available in a number of colours, all naturally dyed with plants. It’s a very soft version of Icelandic wool, and I’m very excited to get to try it.
