Atelier - the world's coolest sweater!!

Hi folks!

I'm here, back again after my seriously long break. Though I've had the very best intentions, my poor little blog has been neglected for quite some time. Sorry!

But here's some exciting news...I just finished knitting a Miller's Hat!! It is just so freaking great! The yarn I knit it in is pretty amazing too; a beautiful, rustic natural gray/brown worsted weight that was a gift from isabelle-c on Ravelry. I think my crunchy yarn was a great match for this textured pattern. The cables are perfectly defined! The contrast colour is just a little odd ball of Dream in Colour Classy that I had kicking around. Love it, I'm so happy with it!



And now onto the really exciting news...
I feel so so lucky to have had my yarn knit into my new favourite sweater, Atelier! Kate (torontoknitter on Ravelry) was chosen to be in the group of test knitters for Atelier, Heidi Kirrmaier's latest sweater design, woo hoo! The contest results were just posted tonight, and Kate won in the Best Feedback category : D

Here is a look at her beautiful sweater...






...It's knit in my Merino Fingering in the colourway Graphite. I can't say enough good things about this lovely pattern. I was so happy to help out with photos (which meant I got to try on the sweater too!) Of course, I have to knit one of these for myself...but what colour?! Not an easy decision at all...will keep you posted there. I just can't resist those amazing pockets!



Well, that's all for now. I'll surely be back again soon, I have lots of projects to talk about and always lots of Viola news : D

Happy knitting!!

Knitting!!

Since recovering from the frenzy that was the Knitters Fair I've managed to get quite a bit of knitting done.

I'm nearly finished my over the knee socks, and love them!






I haven't quite figured out just how I'm going to wear them, but I'm determined! They come up to mid-thigh area, so these are some serious socks! I've started into the ribbing on the second sock, so I'm in the home stretch now.

I whipped up a chickadee cowl in one of my new yarns, M/C/N worsted






And I have to say, I'm going bonkers for this yarn! It's a blend of 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon. It's amazingly soft and smooth with a beautiful sheen and great stitch definition. The colourway is new as well - Graphite. It was a really easy and fast project, and I love the way linen stitch shows off pretty hand dyed colours :)

I also knit up up a Boneyard Shawl in Fancy Sock. Another super quick and fun project!



But I'm so excited to show off my latest bit of spinning. It was so long ago now that I don't even remember if I mentioned this little 4 oz bump of Hedgehog fibres merino/silk...well take a look at it now...





...It is a single ply lace weight, and I just can't wait to cast on a great big stinking shawl!! I've no idea how much yardage I ended up with. I'm sure not about to count each tiny, frail little strand either! So my plan is to knit a simple triangular shawl and keep on going until I run out of yarn. Woo Hoo!

I have just one complaint with this lovely fiber; the colour TOTALLY ran when I soaked the yarn to set the twist. The I haven't taken pictures of the post-soak yarn, but most of the green and gold is overdyed with black-y/purple. Sad.

Knitter's Fair

Yippee, Hooray! the Knitter's Fair this past Saturday was not only loads of fun, but also a great success! My little booth was abuzz with yarn and fiber lovers; I was so happy to see familiar faces and to meet some new knitters as well. And can't wait to see some new Viola projects pop up on Ravelry :)

I took loads of pictures of my booth - sadly there are all under icky fluorescent light - but hopefully you'll get the idea...



My sister Sarah, adjusting something important, I'm sure...


Roasted Carrot sock kits (remember those?!) design by the lovely and talented Kate Atherley!





There's me, knitting away on my chickadee cowl (now finished :))



Cute! Socks supplied by my sweet friends who also helped out in the booth for the day!

This bittersweet was green in the morning, but the heat of the building caused it to pop and reveal these lovely orange berries! I love bittersweet so much that I'm planning a tattoo...details to follow...



...The booth design and layout was so much fun to come up with! My family and friends helped out so much, and we managed to get everything assembled quite quickly in the morning. All in all great fun, and I could not be happier with my first-trade-show-ever-experience!

a quick hello

As promised, I've been running around like a crazy person for the last couple of weeks. Preparing for my first trade show (Yay, Hooray!) has been quite a lot of work. The knitter's fair is less than a week away now, and I'm just finishing up little bits and bobs that I've forgotten/neglected up until this point.

I'm bringing 2 new yarns that I am quite excited about...

CASHMERE! who on earth doesn't get excited about cashmere?!





Because it rained this afternoon I found time to get some non-dyeing things scratched off my list. Amongst these was making my cashmere tags...I think they are just about the cutest things I've ever seen!

and a lovely and squishy merino/cashmere/nylon blend in a shiny soft worsted weight. I love this stuff! Just tonight I cast on a quick little cowl in it (the sun was already down, so no pictures...sorry). It's knitting up beautifully; can't wait to wear it! The colour pictured is new, and it's called graphite.



And take a look at this...A very sweet customer has offered her knitting as a sample for the show! It's the cedar leaf shawlette by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting





She knit it using just 1.5 skeins of Silky Dk in colour Marigold. I finally managed to grab a few photos tonight. Love it, thanks Jacqueline! Check out her Rav projects here .

And I've managed to finish something amongst all the chaos...my fingerless mitts (still nameless) are done and photographed, and I quite like them.







That's all for the moment. I'm heading to bed and hoping that tomorrow is a little less soggy :)

news!

Hey folks!

I've neglected the blog quite terrible lately, but there are a few very exiting reasons for it!

Just in case you haven't heard, the lovely ladies at the Purple Purl are planning a Featherweight KAL using MY YARN!! Whoa!

You may remember my featherweight cardigan...



...it may have given me a bit of attitude while I was knitting it, but was entirely worth while in the end. I love it! I want to knit another, but can't seem to settle on a colour...life is full of such difficult decisions!
Anyway, I've been hard at work dyeing Fancy Lace for the KAL, and just have a few skeins to go. It's really fun dyeing to fill an order, scratching colours off the list as I go along. Here is a peek at just a few of the skeins that are soon to become featherweight cardigans...


I'm planning to knit another featherweight along with the KAL, but may just want to knit it in Fancy Sock this time around...hmmmm...

The second piece of exciting news is that I am feverishly preparing for the Kitchener Waterloo Knitter's Fair this September 11. It's going to be my first ever show, and preparations are in full swing...more or less that means that yarn covers every surface in the house. I'll be bringing lots of all my tried and true yarns, some spinning fiber (yay!) and just a little taste of 2 new yarns! Hope to see lots of familiar faces there, and some new ones too!

Amidst my frantic dyeing I have managed to knit a few things. My Peasy is coming along really well. The body is almost finished, and it looks quite lovely. I've also knit these cute little socks...






...They are a test knit for Kate Atherly, and may just make an appearance at KW...stay tuned! The pattern is inspired by carrots, so I decided that I'd knit some purple carrots (an especially tasty variety I think). The colour is violet and I used my merino/nylon sock base.

And here are some pretty yarn shots. I think I have to keep all of these (such a greedy guts!) Think I've already planned projects in all of 'em

Silky DK in Juniper

Sock in a new colour (that I'm totally in love with!) Sugared Apricot

Fancy Sock in Nosferatu

and, my new greatest love, Fancy Lace in Sea Storm!

and last, I can hardly believe it, but I've been blogged about! Check this out...a whole post about me. I'll try to make sure it doesn't go to my head :)

Hope to be back again soon, but if I don't return soon know that I am buried under a mountain of pretty yarn.

Peasy at long last!

I'm so happy to finally be knitting Peasy. It's such a pretty and simple pattern, and great fun to knit as it turns out!
I'm knitting Peasy as a gift for my mom, and decided to knit it in my merino fingering. It's the same yarn I used for my lovely Charlie sweater, and I just can't seem to get enough of it's soft squishy texture. Peasy is meant to be knit in a DK weight yarn, so because I changed my gauge I decided to knit a size larger than I needed. So far everything fits perfectly and looks amazing! My mom chose "Mineral" for her sweater, and I'm loving the way it's knitting up. Mineral is such an interesting colour; sometimes it looks green, other times bronze or gold. I'm quite blown away by it actually! Oh yes, and we've decided to make our (I'll be doing some sweater borrowing for sure!) Peasy a henley instead of a cardigan. There are some really pretty Peasy henleys on Rav, and I firmly believe that nothing beats a good henley.








I've been knitting quite a bit on my over the knee socks as well, and am completely in love with them. In fact, I haven't stopped knitting long enough to take a picture! I decided to work on both at the same time, so I have both socks knit to a good 5 inches up the leg...one significantly into calf shaping. They look fantastic and I just can't wait for the finished product!

That's all the knitting news for the moment. I just updated the Etsy store with a few new things. I'm really excited about a new colour series that I'm working on called LAYERS. It need not be explained that these are all overdyed colours. At the moment, I'm really just in the experimental stage, but I plan to have consistent colours just as soon as I can!

Here is a look at the latest...



Fawn in fancy lace 2



Nori in fancy sock. There was much debate over what this colour should be named. It also reminds me of a deep and dark forest, of course it would be enchanted :)
Whatever it reminds you of, I think it's lovely!

northern adventure

Last weekend I visited my Aunt in North Bay, probably one of my favourite places on the planet! We did all the usual northern Ontario stuff; lake swimming, canoeing, wandering through the forest...and I went bonkers taking pictures...











My cousin's camp in the middle of nowhere, really. We drove for an hour deeper and deeper into wilderness on beautiful country roads. I even saw my first moose on the way in, cute! Most impressive, I think, is that she and her family built the entire structure from the ground up. They live there for most of the summer without running water or electricity. Sigh, so dreamy!
They have a few ponds on their huge property that are a home for many happy geese and beavers, frogs and countless other cute little creatures.

And here is a view of my aunt's beautiful beach! I took these pictures around dusk on an overcast day. The light was so crazy pretty, how could I resist?!
The water level is really low this year, so all the little plants are new. I really loved these cute little star shaped flowers.











Needless to say, it was a great weekend. I always return from North Bay feeling so relaxed and energized...and I got so much knitting done too! So much so that I managed to finish my Charlie sweater!

I love it! I'd say this sweater has the perfect balance of vintage style and simplicity. So pretty and comfortable, and crazy easy to knit too! I can't wait to wear it when the weather cools off, and am already planning more. I have the Holst Garn Isabelle sent me, so I will certainly knit another with that yarn. But I've also begun to envision a longer tunic/dress version. I'm also so happy with how the yarn looks and feels. Knit to this looser gauge it is so smooshy and soft, and the colour combo is perfect! The stripes are apparent, but not intense; they blend together just a little and I love it!