sweetgeorgia

Slate Grey Days Ahead

It’s true, Vancouver is usually pretty grey during the winters — especially February and November (when, I believe, it rained 28 out of 30 days in 2009). So, I’ve sort of avoided dyeing any sort of grey hue. The crisp lighting in the studio encourages me to dye brighter, more saturated colours, but I love and I live in greys and neutrals. Sure, I love a little nervous/awkward chit chat about my shockingly hot pink socks or my hot turquoise hat, but I can relax in a colour like this slate grey…

This pattern, the Vine Yoke Cardigan, is wonderfully written. It’s sort of a fill-in-the-blanks worksheet and so far, the lace pattern seems to be working out just as Ysolda says it will. I’m enjoying the knitting of it as it’s going pretty quickly. Although I won’t finish in the 10 days someone else on Ravelry took to knit this, hopefully it won’t be in my queue for a year… unlike other projects.

So, for Winter, I’m adding this new Slate grey colour to our palette of Dye To Order yarns as well as the Cypress green above. It’s a bit woodsy and murky, a darker and more desaturated teal green. Both these colours will be available in all our yarns, although it might take a bit of time to get it all entered into the online shop. If you don’t see it, just email/txt/twitter.

Another change we’ll be making to the offerings is that our Superwash Worsted and Superwash Sport yarns will be available as larger 4 oz skeins now… more than double the 50g skeins we were doing originally. Hopefully for you sweater knitters, this just means fewer joins and more continuous knitting time. I think we all need more of that. And the opposite is true for the Silk Lamb Lace — we’ve changed the put up to 60g of 625 yards of laceweight goodness. More affordable at this skein size and perfect for the smaller shawl designs that have been popping up!

Automatic Knitting

Recently, I had the opportunity to work with a fashion designer who referred to stockinette stitch as “jersey”. For whatever reason, that word seemed so 80’s. Not sure why. It’s the same thing, just different terminology from a different field. Whatever you call it, I love my plain knitting. No need to look down and watch my stitches, I am pleased that I can form these stitches relatively quickly and completely in the dark. Sometimes, I knit in bed and actually fall half asleep while still knitting stockinette. A particularly bad thing that I sometimes do is knit at stoplights. This is NOT recommended. But knitting at stoplights prevents the other evil that is road rage.

I love that I can knit on a stockinette sleeve in the movie theatre and not lose my place… good thing, since I managed to spend all of Friday night at the Twilight Drive In theatre in Langely… If you haven’t been, you must try it! It’s kind of a trek, but super relaxing to be able to sit in your own car and talk and knit through the entire movie(s) (they show three features in one night). During those six hours, I think I may have eaten my body weight in gummy bears and Pringles.

This knitting is so simple and so soothing. It’s automatic and doesn’t require much angst or thinking. I knit this sleeve of the Whisper Cardigan on much of the drive to Seattle for the Cheese Festival this past weekend. Rather than starting with 90 stitches as in the pattern, I followed the recommendation of a couple knitters on Ravelry and cast on for 76 stitches instead… so I wouldn’t have such a huge bell-shaped sleeve. Not that my arms are particularly tiny. But anyway.

A weekend full of automatic, plain old knitting has got me to the point of finishing this test sweater. I might find some time for doing the sewn bind off of that 1×1 rib tonight… or tomorrow. Finishing never seems as relaxing as knitting. Now that Dollhouse is finished and I’m still waiting for the return of TrueBlood, I’ve been given the first season of The Wire so that I have something to knit to.

It’s lovely that my mom finished knitting her first project too, last week. It’s a stockinette vest for my dad, knit in a Shetland Aran yarn, with 1×1 ribbing at the bottom edge, armholes and neckline. We adapted a pattern to fit my mom’s gauge on 5 mm needles and the size, pre-blocking, appears to be pretty darn good. She’s encouraged, I think, because she’s excited about starting a vest for herself this time. I like when people are happy about their knitting.

SOAR… I’m actually going.

I *just* finished registering for SOAR… It’ll be my first time attending… so far, feeling a little tingly. It took me 20 minutes of hemming and hawing to finally commit the credit card number and during that time, Judith MacKenzie McCuin’s sessions ALL filled up completely. Ahhh well. I am signed up for Amy King’s Dye Crazy, Abby Franquemont’s Drum Carding, Janel Laidman’s Spinning for Socks, and Deb Menz’s Colour class. The amount of combined wisdom in all the instructors is absolutely insane and I can’t wait to drown in fibre and colour during that Halloween weekend.

Now, time to start organizing the resort lodging and 8.5 hour drive from Vancouver to Oregon! Anyone else going? Did you get everything you wanted and more? Anyone ever been? Suggestions to someone going for the first time?

Saltwater. I finished a sweater.

It’s sunny. It’s Friday. And I have a new sweater.

… more, better photos will be coming… but these are just quick snapshots until then.

It’s knit in my worsted weight yarn (Saltwater colourway) from the top down and finished with a stretch of vine lace at the bottom. I’m pretty sure I knit the sleeves the same length… I measured and everything… but it still “appears” as if one sleeve is longer than the other. Hmm. Maybe my arms aren’t the same length.

The design is my own and I’m knitting up a second version of it in a sportweight yarn. The worsted weight version was so quick to knit, it practically knit itself… but with the sportweight version, I’m seeking a lighter quality to the lace bit and a finer fabric altogether. I’m looking forward to more knitting this weekend…

I knit.

Yes, in fact, I do still knit. Unfortunately, I don’t think I am particularly productive… my knitting speed is not terribly bad, but I just never seem to finish things… all the while, I have a million things I want to make. I think one of the Twist Collective issues had an article about knitting productivity. Something about always asking yourself if you are knitting… if not, why not? It’s not about knitting fast, it’s about always knitting. It is, of course, a little bit difficult to always have knitting in your hands when you are busy mixing dyes and bookkeeping, or lesson planning and warping, but that is probably the same as anyone with a day job. I don’t have a television, so there’s very little sitting-down time. Some days, I fantasize about afternoons where I have no responsibilities, no phone calls to make, no emails to answer… and I can just sit and knit for hours at a time. Maybe that day will be today. It’s sunny and warm in Vancouver today. It’s Friday.

Here’s what I’m actually knitting:

I guess it’s a recurring theme… the need to focus on one direction. I don’t know if this is a lesson I will ever fully learn. I’m just too easily distracted by lovely, engaging things.

On a totally different tangent, I was so happy to see Alexa’s yarns up on her blog… several weeks ago, she was in our dye class at the studio and produced some beautiful hand dyed yarns.

Another student came by the studio this week to show me some of the panda roving she spun up recently… so utterly fabulous… that and her “Wicked” sweater in Cascade 220 complete with front pocket (I love it and am tempted to make one now). A few girls have contacted me about renting wheels to try their hand at spinning and I’m constantly delighted that there are new spinners being born each day.

The weather is getting phenomenal in Vancouver and in the upcoming weeks, I’d love to host a little spin-in at the studio… most likely on a Saturday afternoon. Possibly May 23rd? We’ll see. Drop me a line if you might be interested in coming with your wheel… or your knitting… ’cause, as you know, I do still knit.