Halloween 2015

Since I talked yesterday about my Christmas window, I totally forgot to show you my Hallowen window from this past Halloween! We had fun with this fall/Halloween window this past year. You’ve already seen the Katia cushion that we turned into the witch, but there was some more fun parts to this window that I’d like to show you.

We had a skeleton knitting….

 

And a pumpkin that I knit using 4 strands of Cascade Lana Grande on 15mm needles. I followed the Jack Be Little Pumpkin pattern by Elizabeth Murphy except for the fact that I super sized it! The stem was Diamond Luxury Collection Embrace held double stranded.  

 

I crochet some overalls for the two scarecrows in the window.

That was just a freeform crochet project, with no pattern. I used a 5mm crochet hook and Schachenmayr Wool 125 in orange.They were both a one evening project.

Not part of my window, but a project I wanted to finish in time for Halloween was my Hallowig, which I had started the year earlier but then got sidetracked from it. This did not come out big enough and I knitted it as per pattern. I am very disappointed in this project. I am going to see if I can undo the cast off, rip it back, add length to it, and fix it… Though, I am not sure I would ever wear it at this point, so I am not sure if it’s actually worth it.

And to end my Halloween post, here is a pic of my boys on Halloween night. I’ve got a hockey player, a Batman and a G.I. Joe trooper of some kind. They had a great time trick or treating this past fall.

Christmas Window

This was my wonderful Christmas window at the shop. It was a whole community event! We held some knit-along dates where we had the customers come in & knit the bears together. It was a lot of fun, and brought the community together. One of my suppliers supplied us with yarn to knit up the bears. Once the bears came out of our store window, they were donated to a local women’s shelter, where they will be distributed to little kids who come to the shelter, to bring smiles to their faces. This is the window I talked about in this post back in November 2015.

 

Big Alabama Cushion

This is a shop sample that I knit las summer. I wanted to show how the yarn (Katia Big Alabama) knits up. The cushion took 5 skeins of the yarn, with no leftovers. I stuffed the cusion with 2 pillows to fill it. It was an interesting project. Not sure I would knit this again. If I were to make something like this again I would use a much chunkier yarn. This pattern seems to not be on Ravelry. It’s Katia’s Big Alabama Cushion. From their video is looks like they don’t close the bottom of their cushion, however I closed mine on both ends. At Halloween, we dressed up the cushion and had him on display in our shop window. One thing I noticed in the pattern, they don’t actually tell you in words how many stitche to cast on. However, it does say, in the legend 63p. P=stitches. So you cast on 63 stitches and it’s seed stitch/moss stitch for the entire rectangle.

Polar Opposites

Polar Opposites was a fun thing to knit. I really enjoyed knitting this one. I used a combination of SMC Tahiti yarn with SMC Fashion Mouliné Art yarn. It took about half a ball of the Tahiti yarn and 3 skeins of the Mouliné Art, though it could have used 4 skeins if I knitted it a bit longer as per pattern. I used US 11 - 8.0 mm needles for this project. I found for me, I was happy with the length of it with 3 skeins. Had I used up the 4th, it would have been too long for me and it would hang too long down when twisted around my neck. I wanted a cowl that would keep me warm, not have my neck open. Right now this is on display at the shop.

Mack’s Soccer Ball Hat

Just like his brother’s, Mack wanted a soccer ball hat too. These kits were a huge hit at the shop in the fall. They made perfect Christmas gifts. They knit up quite quickly too. I had started this hat back in October, then Mackenzie decided he didn’t want this hat anymore, so I knit him something else and put this hat aside.Then he decided in December that he wanted me to finish the hat, so I did. I added 5 extra rows from the adult small size in the pattern, so it would cover his ears. Even with adding the 5 extra rows, I still had a bit of leftover yarn.

Bird’s Nest Blanket

This project, should not have taken me almost a year to make. However, because of the large needles, which are US 120 / 50 mm, in wood, they are extremely heavy to work with and I was only able to knit with them sitting on the floor of the room (they were too long to use sitting on my bed or coach – not enough room!) So, I only worked on it, from time to time. It wasn’t exactly the type of project that I could just leave out and pick up whenever I wanted.

The pattern I used was Bird's Nest Blanket by Tammy DeSanto. The pattern was by the lady who makes these massive needles. I used 20 skeins of  Himalaya Everyday Big yarn held four stranded. That was also interesting to do. A couple of times I had to back track a few stitches as I realized I was only carrying over 3 of the strands, and one of them was left a few stitches behind. It was easy to accidentally drop a strand.  I would probably consider using the needles again, but not with a cabled pattern. It was awkward to work with cables at this large of needles & thickness of yarn.

Artfil Cocktail

We got some new sock yarn in the shop by Artfil. It’s their self striping yarn line called Cocktail. It’s so soft and wonderfl to work with. There is a free pattern online called Basic Beanies and it uses up only 1 x 50g skein of the Cocktail yarn. I love a one skein project! This hat knits up super quickly. The Raspberry Almond colorway hat above, which I knit as a store sample took me a few days, as I was working on it leisurely. The Patriot colorway hat below, which is our beloved Habs colors, took me less than 24 hours to knit, as I worked on it furiously, as I wanted to include it in a Habs window I did for work. (More info on my recent windows soon to be blogged about!). This is the same pattern that I used for one of my customer’s hats that I knit for them (the grey one I blogged about a few days ago), in the beanie version instead of the slouch version. Love this pattern & the yarn.

Sean’s Green Socks

Sean asked me to knit him neon green warm socks. He was very specific. So I knew I had the perfect yarn at the shop that would work for this, and to boot, it was a 6 ply sock yarn, so it would knit up quicker than 4 ply fingering weight yarn. So I dug around for a pattern that uses 6 ply sock yarn with 4mm needles (the larger the needles, the quicker the knit…) and came up with # 203 Easy Children's Socks by Diane Soucy.

Sean absolutely loves his socks and wears them every time they are freshly washed and put back in his drawer. Mackenzie has now asked me for a similar pair, in the purple & black (which the yarn is pictured above on the left hand side behind the sock) and Quentin also asked for a pair, so those I’ll probably do in black & blue (top right of the above pic).

Knitter’s Frolic Brioche Cowl Class

Last spring I headed to Toronto with a friend of mine for Knitter’s Frolic. We headed to our friend Jen’s house. Besides Knitter’s Frolic, I had lunch with one of my suppliers, took a ballet booty class at my friend’s gym, did a lot of knitting, and had a lot of fun. One of the 2 classes I took in Toronto was a class on the Brioche stitch. The class was given by Kate Atherley, a local to Toronto designer. It was very cool meeting her and I learned a lot in the class. In her class we learned how to do the stitch by using a Cowl pattern. I really enjoyed learning this stitch. This cowl took me no time at all to make. Let’s hope I remember how to do the brioche stitch the next time I want to make something using Brioche! 

The other class I took was with Sivia Harding (how cool, too!) and it was on knitting with beads. Unfortunately I don’t have a finished project from that class (yet) to show you. I should get on that!

Oceantastic & Greentastic

Last year I was on the Gaptastic bandwagon and knit up a bunch of the infinity cowls. I forgot to blog about these 2, which I think are my favourite 2 colors of the bunch I made. They were both knit up in April/May 2015. One took me 6 days according to Ravelry and the other 2 weeks, which I assume took that long because I was knitting other things in between. The Gaptastic pattern is so each (it’s K1, P1) and it’s good conversation knitting. I can knit this pattern in my sleep, so knitting & talking to friends works for this one. I knit these both up on 9mm circular needles, using two different (MC46 (below) and MC33 (above)) Marble Chunky colorways. Marble Chunky is always coming out with more gorgeous colorways, I can see myself knitting up many more of these!

Customer Commissions

On occasion I will knit for a customer. The money is really not worth it, for the time spent knitting. There is no real way to charge per hour of knitting, as no one would ever pay for the time in an amount that would be worth it. I do it when I have the time, and when it’s a project that I actually want to knit. Above, a customer came in with a kit that she had purchased at my shop, however she was allergic to one of the contents of the fibre, and wanted to finish the hat for her 9 year old grandchild. This hat (on larger needles and with chunky wool) didn’t take me long to knit at all. It was a sirdar kit that we had in the shop maybe a year or two ago. She needed it before Christmas and I was able to get it done for her, in between working on othe projects. The hat below, was another story. A British gentleman convinced me to knit him a hat – I think it was the accent that got to me! He wanted only me to knit it, not any of my knitters that sometimes knit for my customers. The only problem was, he wanted it in fingering weight yarn, and because I had knit the Habs hat like this, in less than 24 hours for the shop, I agreed. However, he then came back to me, and asked me to knit him it the same like the shop one, however, the slouch version, not the beanie version. Which is knit to 11” instead of 6.5” before you begin the crown shaping. An extra 4.5” in stockinette stitch with fingering weight yarn on 3.75mm needles. This hat, by the time I was done, I didn’t want to know of it anymore. The hat took me about 5 days to complete. My customer loved it – and even called me the next day to talk about a matching scarf. And about two weeks later he came back to me about a cowl. I told him that I probably could get one of my knitters to knit him a scarf or cowl, but right now I’ve got too much going on and won’t be able to knit for him. We’ll see if he comes back to me or not for one of my knitters to knit it for him. I think it’ll be a while before I knit for customers again. I don’t like the pressure and I just don’t have the time right now. 

Naturalia Dégradé Cowl

I knitted up this Naturalia Dégradé Cowl as a store sample back in November. I absolutely loved working with the Borgo dePazzi Naturalia Dégradé yarn. It was knit up on 12mm needles and it was a very quick knit. And it only took 1 skein! That’s my fave part – no extra ends to weave it & it’s a super long cozy infinity scarf that you can loop over your head. I couldnt’ find the pattern on Ravelry, but it’s a free tear sheet that I got from one of my suppliers, that we have in the shop.

Corey Cobb Hat

My brother had seen a similar hat being sold at Comic Con last year, and casually mentioned that he liked it. So for his birthday this past November, I knitted him up the Jayne Cobb Hat, which a character on a show called Firefly wears.

I used Schachenmayr Wool 85, which is a 100% superwash wool in worsted weight on 4.5mm needles. My brother absolutely loved his gift!

Eula

 

This past spring I knit up Eula, a pattern by Amy Christoffers. I fell in love with the top as soon as I saw it in Berroco #358, Berroco Modern Cotton™ Women. I used the yarn it called for, Berroco Modern Cotton™. It’s got a beautiful feather and fan lace section along the back neckline. Eula is truly a sophisticated summer t-shirt. I knit up the 38” bust size using US 7 - 4.5 mm needles. I did a single crochet around neck instead of picking up stitches & binding off. I liked the look of it, and to be honest, I hate picking stitches on a neckline. I also added 3” of length to the top as I like my tops longer. I am very happy with the results of this project. It was a quick knit that I finished just in time to wear out for my birthday in June.

 

Habs Hats

Recently Mackenzie asked me to knit him up a Habs hat. The first one I knit up, didn’t fit Mackenzie, so I gave it to Quentin so then I had to knit another one for Mackenize as the hat was his request. I actually managed to get 2 hats out of the 3 balls of yarn that I used. I used a generic hat pattern from my memory to cast on the first hat, and adjusted for Mackenzie’s head for the second hat, adding stitches and rows. I used both US 10½ - 6.5 mm and US 11 - 8.0 mm needles for both hats. That hats were both very quick knits and I used colors 331, 301 and 351 in Schachenmayr Merino Extrafine 40. You can view the details of Mack’s hat here, and the details of Quentin’s hat here.

Polar Bears

Today I was in the West Island section (page 23) of the Montreal Gazette. I was called by the Gazette last Thursday and they tried to come out on Thursday evening to my knit-a-long that I hosted at the shop, but they couldn’t get a photographer. They were able to get one for the next day, during my 4th knit-a-long at the shop for this project. The whole idea was that we were going to get the community together to knit these bears, I would have them on display in my shop for a brief period of time, and then we will donate them to charity. The West Island Women’s Shelter will be taking a large portion of them, and then the rest, we will either try to find another charity to donate them to, or I’ve had requests to sell them, and then give the proceeds to charity. I will see how many are leftover after the shelter takes them. My goal is to have 100 bears. I have given out over 120+ kits with the pattern (which we adapted from another free pattern we found, but I made some changes to it to look more bear like) and gave enough yarn (in either white or off white, some of which one of my suppliers donated (to fill the first 70 kits), the rest (about 50 kits now), I donated from either my personal yarn stash and some from the shop too). From the over 120+ kits that I handed out, I have already received just over 50 bears back, completed. They are all so cute, and each have their own personality! Here are some that I have made:

These two above, are little ones I made, to test out the pattern. The first one, on the left, was made using the original pattern that I found for free online. I wasn’t 100% happy with the face, so I made the one on the right, which was test number 2.

Above, is teenage bear. I used some very thick yarn (Bravo Big by SMC) on 10mm needles to knit this guy up.

And this is Mama bear. I used SMC Bravo Big with the yarn held doubled on 15 mm needles to knit her up. She is awesome. I just love her. You can see below, how much bigger she is from the teenage bear. You can also see in the image at the top of this post, that was in the newspaper today, her size compared to the little baby bears.

I really hope this project brings smiles to children’s faces. That was the plan from the beginning, when I decided to launch this project. I cannot wait to see the entire project finished. I have 2 more bears that need to be completed, I have been playing around with different textures of white yarn to create the bears. I will definitely post a picture of the display once all the bears are up.