Twist Fibre Festival

 

On Saturday August 23rd, I went on a road trip with my friend Sara to Saint-André-Avellin, Quebec, to check out Twist Fibre Festival. It was a nice hour and a half drive from our houses, on a very beautiful scenic route. (Above right photo is some items our friend Eugenia was selling in her booth).

  

Ashford had a booth at the festival (left hand photo) and as of this past week, the shop is officially an Ashford dealer. I am VERY excited about this. I am taking a weaving class soon as I’ve wanted to learn how to weave for a very long time. Weaving will definitely help me use up my yarn stash! There was also a yarn bombed spinning wheel at the show in one of the booths.

 

One of the coolest things was the Purling J’s Roving Yarn Co truck. They hail from Kingston, Ontario, and it’s the coolest thing ever. A mobile yarn store. How cool!??!!

 

(Left, me inside the truck)
(Right, me knitting at Eugenia’s booth, just hanging out).

After the festival, I went out for dinner in Saint-André-Avellin with Sara, Eugenia & Manon. Eugenia & Manon happen to be on my exec for the knitting guild this year (I was elected President this past May for this upcoming year). We had drinks, some of us knitted, we talked about our purchases from the day, and it was very nice & relaxing. The restaurant we went to, Au Vieux Chaudron was very tasty. I even had lunch, at the festival, with a lot of Knitting Guild Members. It was really nice to meet up with them at the festival.

First Day of School 2014

First day of Grade 2! "When I grow up I want to be a goalie for the NHL".

First day of Grade 1! "When I grow up I want to play for the NHL”.

My gosh, they’re growing up too fast.

Embrace

I wanted to show off the new yarn we got in stock at the shop, so I knit up my cowl design, since fall/winter is just around the corner. 3 balls of Embrace will make 2 cowls. You need 1 and 1/3 ball to make a cowl.

For this cowl, I cast on 20 stitches instead of the 22 called for in the pattern and omitted the K1 after the first 3 stitches and the K1 before the last 3 (on RS), and the P1 after the first 3 stitches and the P1 before the last 3 stitches (on the WS). It was super bulky and I didn’t fear rolling in on the edges. For bulky yarn, you should leave the extra 2 stitches in to help prevent rolling.

Buttons are in stock in the shop! This pattern makes great Xmas gifts and it knits up in no time at all!

Head Start Hat

I knitted this Head Start hat in the round, instead of flat, as per the pattern on the ball band. I cast on 56 stitches instead of the 54 stitches so that the 2x2 ribbing would work out. I also knit it to 7” instead of 9” as I wanted it as a hat, not a slouch. I did the decreases as written on the ball band. I used up 44g of the 50g ball.

LOVE the way this color way knit up! It was a tad deceiving on the ball, but knits up very lovely!

 

Maderia

I finished up Maderia, which is a free pattern by Berroco, for their yarn, Linus. This was an interesting knit. The yarn was interesting to work with - if you pull too hard, it tears easily. It has a nice drape to it, and I’ve worn it a few times since finishing it on August 3rd. The yarn feels nice in your hands, while knitting. Everything on the pattern was smooth sailing until I got to the front/back neck shaping. The instructions (even with the errata) was not 100% clear (poorly written). Being an experienced knitter, I was able to figure out what they meant but the instructions would throw a beginner off. I am actually working with a student in my drop-in classes at the shop who is knitting this as well, and I am going to have to re-write the instructions for her once we get to the top on her tank top.

I added about 3” to the length before shaping for the armholes. I like my t-shirts/tank tops to be longer.

It fits well. I made the medium size and it drapes/hangs nicely. I like the asymmetrical neck and bottom. It’s very different/unique and lovely at the same time.

How my garden grows

I’ve been meaning to post about my garden. I haven’t had the time until now to sit down and write a post. I finally found 10 minutes. (And I probably should be doing something else, but I didn’t want this to be too outdated!)

These photos are from June:

Curly lettuce (left) & Romaine lettuce (right)

      

Snow peas (left) & green beans (right).

Tomatoes section. (I planted grape, cherry & larger tomatoes).

Cucumbers & zucchini section is against the brick wall almost all the way down the entire plot of the 24 foot garden. I planted 2 or 3 kinds of cucumbers & one type of zucchini.

Peppers (left) (some green, and maybe we’ll be surprised with another color, as my sister-in-law gave us 2 pepper plants, but wasn’t sure what color they were) & raddish loot (right)

These photos below are from two weeks ago already:

 

Curly lettuce (left) & Romaine lettuce (right)

   

Cucumbers & zucchini section doing very well against the back wall.

 

Pepper section. So far all the know still is the green pepper plants… the other plants haven’t started to grow any peppers yet. Maybe soon!

 

Snow peas (left) & green beans (right). The snow peas have been producing and we’ve been eating them right off the plant already. The green beans are now almost ready to pick some to steam as a side dish for dinner!

The tomato section. We have a lot of tomatoes growing finally. I actually ate 1 red grape tomato already and it was beyond delicious. I cannot wait for more to come!

I’ll be back soon with another garden update to show you what new we’ve gotten since I took these pics (which are about 2 weeks old now).

Are you growing anything delicious in your garden?

Ribbons and Bows Beanies

 

 

I knit up these most adorable hats for shop samples. It’s the ribbons & bow beanie by April Lowe. I picked up the pattern (for 4$) on Etsy. (Seeing the purple one on her Etsy page makes me want to make some more, in purple too). This pattern makes me want to knit one for every baby girl I know. And make some for gifts. I think I will absolutely make this one again, over & over again. Well, let me tell you, the next girl that I need a gift for, will be getting one of these! And the newborn size doesn’t take more than 30g combined (in white & pink or whatever color you chose), so from a 100g skein of worsted weight, you can get a bunch of hats out of these. It was about 20-25g of the main color & about 5-10g of the white. Oddly, the cotton hat weighs more than the wool blend hat. I used Berroco Weekend for the cotton hat & Berroco Vintage™ for the wool blend hat on a 4.5mm needle. I used a 16” for the hat until the decreases and then switched to some double pointed needles.

 

They’re on display at the shop if you’d like to see them!

Gaptastic, again

At the beginning of the year I knit up a gaptastic for the shop. I loved it so much, that I decided that I had to knit up another one, for myself. Those mornings standing at the bus stop with the kids in the middle of winter get brutally cold. My thrummed mittens are a staple for standing at the bus stop, along with a trusty hat. Now, I can add this to my wardrobe to keep me warm.

I used up 3 skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick Solids (color: 640 Fisherman) that was in my stash for a very long time. I do have stuff in my stash that was not purchased at my shop, but acquired before I bought the shop. I used 9mm (US 13) knitting needles. This was a great project to work on while at Sean’s baseball games. I was able to knit & chat with the other baseball moms at the same time. I would definitely knit this project again. It’s a fave of mine now!

Bling Shawl!

I just finished knitting up a shawl, my own design, for a kit that we are selling at the shop. The kit comes with 2 balls of yarn (enough to make the shawl) and the pattern (for free with purchase of the kit which costs 15$!). If you cannot get down to the shop and would like a copy of the shawl pattern, it's available for sale on Ravelry. I am in love with the color and the way it striped along the shawl. The yarn was lovely to work with. (Rozetti Yarns Polaris). The finished size is 50"x21". The pattern calls for 5mm / US8 needles. This was fun to knit & design - I hope you like it!

Saartje's Bootees for Jameson

I knit these adorable little booties for a co-worker of my husband’s who had a baby in May 2014. I used 12 grams (55 yards) of ONline Supersocke 4-fach London Color using 2.75mm/US2 needles.

These are so cute & took no time at all to knit up. The pattern is very easy to follow. I knit them in one evening. I definitely plan to knit up more of these.