Today I went to visit Janie of Janie H Knits just outside Perth. I spent a delightful couple of hours at her store chatting about lace, design, knitting, TNNA, yarn….. and, well….. everything that’s fun. 
My book will be available at Janie’s once it’s released, and I’ll be back for more knitting and chatting. Janie has been to TNNA twice and was full of excitement and tips and suggestions of things to do and people to meet. It’s coming up very soon (I leave next Thursday), and I’m really looking forward to it. We also had a really nice chat about the industry as a whole, and how important it is for us smaller business owners to support one another and work together. In addition to the nice chat, she also treated me to some pomegranate and vanilla tea and biscuits. Honestly, I didn’t want to leave. I’ll have to go back soon.
After visiting Janie, I went to Perth to have a late lunch.
I ate at Fiddleheads in the historic Code Mill in Perth – apparently one of the oldest heritage buildings in Perth. My view of the Tay River was spectacular.
The Tay river also runs past Janie H Knits, but of course I was so excited to be there that I completely forgot to take pictures. Next time.
Anyhow, after my lunch I went down to the river and sat there for a while and knit another tile for my Stained Glass Window afghan before I went home. All in all, a wonderful day.
It’s starting to feel like summer is coming – although perhaps a very wet summer. Still, the world is green and the temperatures are higher than they used to be. We’ve also just had a long weekend here in Canada – Victoria Day weekend – and we took the opportunity to go out to the cottage to make sure it was still standing after the winter. It was very nice and relaxing, and I managed to start a new project. I decided that I need a summer top – preferably soon. So I cast on and have knit perhaps 10-12 cm of the body. It’s a little hard to see, because it just won’t lie flat at the moment, but it’s coming along.
The yarn is Wollmeise 100%, and I believe the colour is Sabrina, but I have misplaced the tag, so I’m not sure. In any case, it’s a lovely colour, and I think it will make a very nice top.
I have also made a few more tiles for the Stained Glass Window Tiles afghan project. I’m up to 32 tiles so far, and there’s still a lot of yarn (and tiles) to go. I’m enjoying making new tiles and patterns and trying out new colour-combinations. It will be quite a puzzle when it’s time to join them all together though.
The Stained Glass Window Tiles were on hold for a little while because I ran out of yarn, but thanks to Cindy at Apple Laine this has been remedied. A large box arrived last week and here are the contents:
I figure this will keep be busy for a while. I’ve been eagerly trying out new colour-combinations – and I find new favourites all the time. My latest favourite is the one with the water drops (last tile in the third row), but the one with the pinwheels (first tile in the third row) is another combination that makes my heart sing.
In other news, the lovely spring weather we were enjoying has left us, and now it’s rain, rain and rain. It’s also cold (7C for several days in a row). I had thought that watching softball games would be warmer and more pleasant than the hockey games (now that hockey season is over), but I might have to revise that after I spent 2 hours and 20 minutes freezing in the rain on Tuesday evening. At least the right team won. And I managed to knit part of a cuff and most of a palm on my new fingerless mittens. Thankfully I still had a pair of fingerless mittens to WEAR in my knitting bag (leftover from hockey practices), so I could knit. Surely May evenings could be a little warmer than arenas in the middle of winter?
Jeg Lagde Meg (As I Lay Down) is the third shawl in the Folk Song KAL.
It is inspired by a Norwegian folk song, in which the singer finds out that his beloved is ill. He hurries to her side only to find that he has arrived too late and she has died. He then sings of his grief – no one has been loved more than she.
The shawl comes in three different sizes – this picture shows the small version. One 600 yd skein of Krissy from Land O Lace is enough for any of the three sizes. The yarn comes in many different colours, of course, and this one is called Waconia.
The shawl is a crescent shaped shawl and is knit from the bottom up.
The last few days have been really lovely here in Ottawa, and I have also been really busy with my book – Shaping Shawls – and a couple of other projects. So what is one to do when the weather is gorgeous for the first time in months?
The answer is simple: grab the laptop and a cup of tea, and work outside.
The Ottawa Valley Quilter’s Guild hosted a quilt festival this past weekend, and the Ottawa Knitting Guild had a table at the festival. So on Friday morning, I spent a couple of hours there to promote knitting in general and of course the guild in particular.
I had some delightful company, of course. Here is Jana, the president of the Ottawa Knitting Guild (in her gorgeous, handknit top) and Fiona and our table full of knit items.
And when I say full, I really mean full. There were shawls, socks, baby hats, baby sweaters, mittens, gloves, scarves, slippers, an Aran cardigan and even an afghan. And there were various types of yarn, from handspun to commercial merino, acrylic to cashmere, and a number of things inbetween.
This is me and Fiona working on our current projects. I’m knitting a pair of fingerless mittens in Emeline Sock – a delightful silk/merino blend from Springtree Road, and Fiona is knitting a lace scarf in a cashmere/silk/alpaca blend, if my memory serves me correctly. In any case, it’s a very soft and lovely purple yarn.
In case you’re wondering at the strange back-drop, it appears that despite the fact that I spent all winter knitting in arenas during the kids’ hockey practices and games, the hockey-knitting still isn’t over for me. The Festival of Quilts was hosted in one of the many arenas in Ottawa, and while the ice surface was gone (thankfully), the boards were not. So here we are, in one of the corners, and you can see the blue zamboni door in the background. At least we didn’t get the penalty box. 😉
The show was manly about quilting, but the table next to ours was occupied by the Ottawa Guild of Lacemakers. They were demonstrating bobbin lace, and I really wish I had taken some pictures of them to show you. When I was in elementary school – grade 5 or 6, I think – I actually got to make some bobbin lace in school. I had seen the cushions up on some high shelf in the classroom, and I asked my teacher to show me. She was delighted, as bobbin lace had fallen out of fashion, and I don’t think she’d gotten to teach anyone bobbin lace for 20 years or so. I made a few lace borders, but after grade 6 I switched schools, and I don’t think I’ve ever even seen bobbin lace cushions since then. It was really lovely to see it again, and there appear to have been advances in the field of bobbin lace cushions since I last saw them, but the basics were still the same. Lots of fun.
Of all the nights during the year, Midsummer’s Eve is the most magical and mystical. During that night, fairies dance and anything can happen. In Sweden, young girls pick seven different kinds of flowers in the hopes that they will dream of their true love.
People raise midsummer poles and make midsummer wreaths and celebrate throughout the night, during which the sun doesn’t set.
The Mystic Midsummer Wreath Shawl is a crescent shaped shawl, inspired by the midsummer wreaths worn by young and old on this magical day. It will be published in a mystery knitalong format, hosted in the Knit & Knag Designs group on Ravelry. It uses 2 skeins (total 700 yds) of Classic Merino Lace from Knitting Notions in Dark Rose.
The KAL starts on June 15 and the shawl pattern will be published in 4 weekly clues on Wednesdays.
The cost of the KAL is $6.00 CDN until June 15, at which point the price will increase to the regular pattern price of $8.00 CDN. Please sign up here.
For the past year I’ve been working on a book on lace design, and I’m super excited to say that as of today my book is available for pre-order from Cooperative Press.
Shaping Shawls is a wonderful resource for anyone who would like to design their own lace shawls, as well as for those who wish to gain a greater understanding of how different shapes of shawls are constructed. The book covers a number of different shapes and constructions, and also contains 10 complete patterns that are examples of the various shapes.
There are a few sneak-preview shots available to show some of the designs from the book. All of the shawls in the book are knit using yarn from a number of different Indie Dyers, and the vibrant colours are truly amazing.
This shawl is a top-down triangular shawl, knit in Nona from Spirit Trail Fiberworks. It’s an incredibly vivid blue/purple and the shawl drapes beautifully.
Next up is the Margarita Leaves shawl – a bottom-up triangular shawl knit in the softest and most luxurious Serenity Silk from the Zen Yarn Garden.
And then there is a crescent lace shawl knit in Nimbus Cloud from Slackford Studio. This yarn has an amazing halo and is so soft that you want to cuddle up and hide in the shawl.
These are just a few teaser shots to give you a taste of what’s in the book. Enjoy!
I’m back home again after spending a lovely weekend in Toronto at the DKC Frolic. Natalie and I drove down on Friday (actually, Natalie drove and I spent a few hours chatting and knitting in the passenger seat). When we arrived at the hotel, we met up with Hasmi of Rocky Mountain Dyeworks and then helped her set up for the fair.
Hasmi had brought quite a selection of yarn. It was particularly impressive that she had brought it all in her checked luggage on the plane from Banff. It was in vacuum sealed bags, and was quite compressed until we opened them. And then the yarn fluffed right out, and looked amazing.
We were so busy setting up that I didn’t even manage to get a good picture of the final booth. Nor one of Hasmi. As you can see, she was moving so quickly she didn’t stick on the photos. I took several, and they are all like this. It was all a blur.
After setting up the booth on Friday night, we had a relaxing dinner and then rested for the show the next day.
When we got back to the JCCC, there was a long line-up at the door (which we thankfully bypassed, so we could put the finishing touches on the booth). We had a few minutes to get everything done, and then suddenly the doors opened and the crowds descended. It was amazing to see everyone first do a quick sweep of what was available, and then watch them slow down to browse the individual booths.
In addition to helping out at the Rocky Mountain Dyeworks booth, I also had a chance to visit a number of amazing vendors. There was the lovely Turtlepurl of Gatineau.
Genvieve was a real trooper and managed to wear her fingerless mittens all day, in spite of the fact that it was very hot. They did show off her self-striping yarn beautifully though, so I think it was totally worth it.
And there was Tanis Fiber Arts of Montreal.
Her gorgeous colours seduced me, and two skeins followed me home. I got an MCN yarn in Plum, and a Mulberry silk lace yarn in Stormy.
I wasn’t very good at taking pictures throughout the day, but another few highlights of the show (for me) were Van der Rock yarns from Kingston, Indigodragonfly from Haliburton, Waterloo Wools from, well, Waterloo, and Painted Fleece from Toronto. There were a whole host of other wonderful vendors too, so all in all it was an amazing day.
My main haul from the show though was this collection of yarn from Rocky Mountain Dyeworks.
From left to right there is Cascade Lace in Malachite, Emerald Lake Lace in Lapis Lazul, Glacier Ice Lace in Fireweed, more Glacier Ice Lace in Egyptian Gold, an as of yet unnamed yarn in white (silk lace) and a skein of Three Sisters Fingering in Boreal Bluet. Most of these skeins are for a very secret project that Hasmi and I are planning for later this year. Stay tuned to see what becomes of this yarn.
Recent Comments