This past weekend I was in Toronto for the annual DKC Frolic. I spent most of my time with the amazing Kim of indigodragonfly in her booth. There was a steady stream of people all day. Sometimes it was so crowded we barely fit into the booth. I got to meet a ton of people, and of course I got to see and fondle amazing yarn. Shaping Shawls was available, along with a number of my single patterns.
AND, what has to be one of my favourite things at these shows, I got to see amazing knitwear parading by all day. Here is a version of Huldran next to the Eyjafjallajökull Shawl.
I did sneak out of the indigodragonfly booth a couple of times during the day, to check out what else was around. So I had a chance to see Natalie Servant and Elizabeth McCarten in Debbie Wilson’s/Sheep’s Ahoy booth.
And I stopped into the Zen Yarn Garden booth to chat with Roxanne and Neville. While I was there, I showed Roxanne my almost-finished-new-design in ZYG Serenity Silk Single. I finished it on the drive back, and right now it’s blocking.
All in all, a fabulous time was had by all. I look forward to next year already.
This weekend is the weekend of the annual DKC Knitter’s Frolic. Last year was my first year there and I had a blast. So naturally I’ll be going again this year. I can be found on Saturday in the market place at the Indigodragonfly booth, along with Shaping Shawls, a bunch of printed patterns (including, but not limited to La Toupie), and of course Kim’s wonderful yarns.
On Friday evening, I’ll be teaching a double knitting class at Lettuce Knit. We’ll be knitting the Starlight Shawl, but of course the techniques learned apply to any double knitting project.
Hope to see you in Toronto!
If you are an avid knitter (or live with one), you are probably familiar with the idea of a stash. There seems to be yarn accumulating everywhere – pretty, new skeins from festivals, fairs, local yarn shops, and internet ones (which are particularly sneaky by delivering the yarn straight to your mailbox).
We all plan various projects that may or may not come to fruition, and in the meantime we continue to be tempted by new, different, beautiful colours and textures.
However, in addition to this new stash acquisition, there is the yarn that we’ve actually used for various projects. But most projects don’t use exactly whole numbers of yarn-skeins. So then there are leftovers. I, myself, have lots of drawers, bags, bins and what not of leftovers like this:
And what to do with it? It is, after all, very nice yarn. Just not enough to make anything out of, really. Well….. I guess I could make a third mitt. Or a doll-sized shawl. But what would I do with that?
Enter the piecework afghan. In my current project, each unit is very small. So small, in fact, that most of my leftover skeins can make more than one unit. In order to not make the finished afghan look super-busy and scrappy, I have sorted the leftover yarn by colour family. Right now I’m working on the blue section.
It’s really fun to revisit all this leftover yarn, and remembering the original projects. It’s like finding old friends again. So far I have yarn from mittens, shawls, sweaters, and scarves. As well as some samples from a couple of different dyers. All of the yarn is close to fingering weight, some a bit heavier and some a little lighter, but on the balance, it centres around fingering weight. And in my collection of leftovers, there is a LOT of fingering weight.
Can’t wait to move on to another colour family and visit some new (old) yarn. 
I’ll be teaching Lace Design and Shawl Construction at the Interweave Knitting Lab this fall. For more information on the Interweave Knitting Lab and to sign up for classes, click on the picture.
All the shawls for the next book are now completed, blocked and in the mail to Cooperative Press. The next step in the process is the photoshoot which will happen later this month. Looking forward to some pretty pictures.
There are twelve shawls in various colours – all beautiful yarn from Rocky Mountain Dyeworks, Cephalopod Yarns, Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, indigodragonfly, the Verdant Gryphon and Zen Yarn Garden.
Once the photoshoot has happened, there will be a fun little contest over on the Cooperative Press site. Stay tuned!
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