sweetgeorgia

Twinflower

The new Fall 2010 Twist Collective was released today and I’m so excited to see the beautiful design Amy Herzog (aka stashknitrepeat) has created from our Merino Silk DK. “Twinflower” is a fingering/sport-weight pullover with classic styling and delicate details. And I’m so enamoured with the lace insets at the sleeve edges. I’m looking forward to seeing all the projects that come out of this lovely design.

Ravelry Search Party… with prizes

It goes without saying that in the past few years Ravelry has changed the face of the knitting world. And now they want to make things even better.

The hardworking folks at Ravelry have been working on creating an improved search function so that we can find patterns more easily based on more detailed criteria. For instance, you are specifically looking for a hexagonal-shaped shawl that employs twisted stitches, entrelac and estonian lace patterns… well, this new search feature will be able to do that for you… with your help. Basically, over 166,000 patterns will need to be reclassified in order to best work with the search feature. So for every pattern you reclassify (that is not your own design), you will be entered for a chance to win one of the 17 amazing prizes that have been donated. Our collection of yarns (above) is one of said prizes.

If you want the full scoop about the Ravelry Search Party, check it out »

Knitting in Nanaimo

It’s been about ten years since I’ve been to visit Nanaimo just over on Vancouver Island. But this past weekend, I had the great opportunity to go for a short visit and also drop by their local yarn store, Mad About Ewe. It’s a sweet little shop located in the Old City Quarter of Nanaimo amongst a complex of restored heritage buildings from the 1800′s and early 1900′s. I dropped off an order with them of the new Silk Crush Sock and some other yarns and then took some time to walk around the waterfront and enjoy the sun. It’s not often that I get a completely free weekend to just wander around in the sun, watching elderly couples walk down the seawall holding hands.

By Sunday afternoon, it had started raining and I headed out for lunch, bringing my current project… the Geodesic Cardigan. I have been feeling pretty lucky that I managed to get a copy of the Knitscene magazine that this pattern is in. It seems to be sold out everywhere, but on one visit to a yarn shop, the staff didn’t have it but helped me call around to other yarn stores to locate it for me. It was like a scene out of Miracle on 34th Street. And yes, they found a copy of the magazine for me at another yarn shop who promised to hold it for me. So, now, even though I really want to make this cardi, I feel a little obligated to enjoy this gift.

Well, I’ve had a lot of time to knit on this… We attempted to leave Nanaimo on Sunday afternoon around 3:30 pm but missed the 5 pm ferry and ended up on the 7 pm ferry. Then the 7 pm ferry was delayed by 30 minutes in departing. Mid-way through the trip, the captain says they were directed to go retrieve a boat that had flipped over, so we had to turn the ferry around (is that even possible?) and go back to get that boat. Turns out the “boat” was a little walmart tub that looked like a baby’s washing basin. That delayed us by another 45 minutes. It was pretty much 10 pm by the time we set foot in Horseshoe Bay. Six and a half hours spent waiting and sitting. We could have flown to Toronto in less time… I honestly don’t know how people commute back and forth from the Island for work. It’s such an unreliable form of transporation. But I guess if you have the luxury of time like we did, then no matter.

New Colourways for Spring

I don’t know when time started to speed up, but the past couple months, I’ve just been finding it slipping through my fingers. During March, I spent a huge portion of my studio time working on dyeing for FibresWest. While being acutely aware of how time-sensitive the dyeing needed to be (I really don’t like deadlines), I managed to find space in my head to create a few new colourways that I absolutely adore. They are colours that I am just entranced by and, simply, I just like looking at them. They make the studio feel brighter and happier.

These are the four new variegated and “gently” variegated colourways: Maple, Summer Dusk, Violet Hill, and Peashoot. As well, a couple very delicate and almost neutral semi-solids: Tumbled Stone and Summer Skin.

And, also debuting at Fibres West last month, the DK (4-ply) weight of our Merino Silk series. Merino Silk DK is 4-ply whereas the Merino Silk Lace is 2-ply and Merino Silk Aran is 8-ply. It’s been great for really quick or beginner lace knitting. I’m getting a gauge of 24 sts per 4″ for 3.75 mm needles, but I’m sure everyone knits at different tensions and everyone prefers a different hand. I’ve dyed a whole bunch of it to either knit the new Manu cardigan by Kate Davies or Coraline by Ysolda. I can’t decide. And I also have a little stash of it in a special blue shade to knit the Apres Surf Hoodie by Connie Chang Chinchio

Fibres West was a really wonderful experience and I’m so grateful for all the customers and friends, both new and old, who stopped by the booth to say hello. Since we were positioned next to the Ravelry booth, we were audience and participant in a few little reunions.

It’s the very first time I’ve ever participated in a show situation and I was so nervous about getting enough stuff ready to display, getting the booth together, driving a truck… but luckily my old high school friends, James and Teresa, do this kind of thing for a living. They are both industrial and interior designers with their own design company, Light Couture International, and they helped me design and build the booth. They came over to the studio throughout March to paint all my shelving and helped set it all up on Thursday evening before the show. Amazing and professional, they took a huge weight off my shoulders so that I could just focus on dyeing great colours and making lots of yarn.

I am completely in awe of shop owners who are able to get their whole kit together and go from show to show to show. It’s a ton of work, but so worth it to see people in person, excited about the yarn and fibre. Thank you to everyone who came to help and visit!

I’ll leave you with one of our photos from Fibres West… the rest are on Flickr.

Silk Crush Sock

Our newest yarn base has arrived and we finally had a chance to select a name for it!

Thank you to everyone who took time to email me name suggestions! It took sorting through nearly 300 suggestions from readers and customers for us to finally pick the name. A long-time SweetGeorgia friend and student, Dana, suggested “Secret Crush” and it was the closest thing to describing the slightly crystallized look and feel of our new silk and superwash merino blend yarn. Kind of like crushed velvet in yarn form. Charming, rustic and wonderfully soft.

Like all our yarns, I always recommend that people handwash and air dry their precious handknit pieces. But of course, the convenience factor plays a big part and for my own handknit socks, I’ll admit to throwing them in the washer… but the socks don’t do well in the dryer. That’s a big no-no for me, personally. So, if you want to knit socks out of this yarn, definitely, on 2.25 mm needles, I found it to make a beautiful, soft fabric. Delicate, yes. Not for hardwearing boot socks, no.

Better yet, I think this will make a wonderful baby gift yarn. It’s superwash so it’s easy-care, but then it’s got the 50% silk to make it so much more luxurious and gift-worthy. And if you love knitting small shawls or tiny cardigans, I think this new yarn will fit the mix very nicely.

It’s available now on our shop website as part of our dyed-to-order collection. You can also come visit us at FibresWest this coming weekend to see it in person! I’m knitting it up in the Traveling Woman’s Shawl, so you can definitely have a look and feel.