posts tagged ‘three bags full’

my bags are full

Monday, August 28th, 2006

Vancouver has a new yarn store, hurrah! Yes, we went to the grand opening at three bags full on Saturday morning… see the view:

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A window full of Lorna’s, Koigu, and a bit of my BFL roving…
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Wall o’ Cascade 220 in every colour imaginable…
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That’s my yarn… alongside Koigu! Whaahoo.

The shop opening was packed with friendly knitters, flipping through pattern books and scrummy yarns while snacking on the cutest little cupcakes. There’s a computer terminal set up near the back of the shop where you can look up knitty.com and double-check yarn requirements… so handy. I bumped into fellow weaver, Barb, as well as Astor, the local knit & crochet instructor and knitwear designer.

Oh oh oh, and I bought myself Norah Gaughan’s new book “Knitting Nature”. So many things I want to make now…

Afterwards, we headed over to Nat Bailey Stadium for a friend’s company picnic/BBQ. With over 700 people at this picnic, there were plenty of activities planned from wallclimbing to bocce to… get this… human foosball!

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Uh huh… human foosball…

You strap yourself into this velcro belt which doesn’t allow you to move from your “post”… so it really is just like foosball!!

Ok, back to fibre. Via Louisa’s blog I found out that Hannelore from Sun Bench Fibres is retiring and she sold all her inventory to Birkeland Bros on Main Street. So, if you go by Birkeland Bros right now you’ll find some weaving yarn, yummy Ashland Bay spinning fibres, and some weaving/spinning/knitting books. I don’t know if Birkeland is going to keep on with supplying weaving stuff, but it would be wonderful… to have a walk-in shop in Vancouver where we could buy weaving yarn and shuttles, rather than having to order everything by mail-order. Bah. Oooh, someplace like my beloved Weaving Works but in Vancouver.

And speaking of weaving, I’ve decided not to take the fall weaving class at Place des Arts for now. I’m so short on time these days and plus I’ll be missing nearly half the classes because of our upcoming trip to China and Japan. It’s two hours of driving from Kits to Coquitlam and back and that’s time that I could plug into doing actual weaving. I already have several projects planned and several warps ready to go… I just need the time to sit and weave. But to make sure that actual weaving occurs, I’m going to designate one night to weaving (or knitting, or spinning) — no work, no email, no television, no interruptions.

Once I get through these plain weave, twill, and log cabin projects, I’m sure I’ll want to learn something new. Maybe I can sign up for class in January… but that’s a long way off. But if you can take classes at Place des Arts, you should — it’s really the very best place in the Lower Mainland to learn to weave. The facility is incredible and I’m always so grateful for their generosity in lending equipment and resources — so essential to learning and practice.

Yesterday

Tuesday, August 15th, 2006
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Procion MX on cotton warp

Wow, what a way to start the week. I have good news! There’s a new yarn shop opening up in Vancouver called “three bags full” at 4458 Main Street (between 28th and 29th Avenues)… and they will be the first shop in Vancouver to carry my hand dyed yarn and fibre! There is some Blue Faced Leicester rovings, Superwash Sock yarns, Handpainted Lace yarns and Candy Floss brushed mohair going to the shop next week before their grand opening on Saturday, August 26th. I’m so excited!! (can you tell?)

After meeting with Francesca and Zoe from Three Bags Full, I drove out to Langley to do this:

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My crappy cameraphone photo of Lara shooting alpaca

Lara from greysquare photographics and her assistant, Dan, came to photograph the alpacas at Kensington Prairie Farm in Langley Township yesterday so that I can use them in some print advertising that I’m putting together for Kensington Prairie Farm. So. Much. Fun. We were outside shooting the alpacas from about 6 pm until the sun went down and then inside shooting alpaca product (yarn, scarves, socks, fibre, and my favourite… blankets!) until nearly midnight. The woven alpaca blankets are seriously to die for…

I’ve known Lara since we were both about 12 years old. She had always wanted to go into advertising so it seemed natural that she studied to be a professional photographer. I gotta say it was very cool to finally get to collaborate with her on a project. And it’s a plus that Lara is also a knitter.

Finally, my first post has appeared on Whip Up! This first post, called “Killer Colour”, is all about safe dyeing practices… a good way to start before diving into playing with dyes. Whip Up invited me to write about dyeing and spinning for their site, so I’ll be doing that a couple times a month. The photo at the top of that article as well as this post? The Procion MX handpainted warp? Well, I’ll post about that tomorrow.

about sweetgeorgia

Driven by an obsessive, passionate and often tumultuous relationship with colour, Felicia Lo is the owner of SweetGeorgia Yarns, a handpainted yarn and design company based in Vancouver. Founded in 2005, SweetGeorgia Yarns is about intense, relentless and unapologetic colour in luxurious natural fibres and textiles. She writes about all things knitting, spinning, dyeing, and weaving here at sweetgeorgia.

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Silk bricksSilk bricksCarded poufsRaw fleeceCarding up the Gotland fleeceDyeing on rainy daysDyeing on rainy daysPhotos from the June 2008 Guild Meeting

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