A Life of Colour

Shows.

Hello there to all my blog readers...it's about time I did a quick update of what's been going on around here...and mostly it's about shows!  Since my last couple of posts, I've ventured out to two shows here in Ontario and thought I'd share a few photos. This year's Knitter's Fair was very well attended and with Cathy of ZigZagStitches, we decided to stretch out into a triple booth from our double last year. It worked really well too - not only was there lots of room for movement but we also managed to squeeze Anna in from KnitandKnag to show off her book! Next year will be even larger as I squeeze into a triple booth on my own - you must come see what I have in store...one section will be something fun and also very hands on - more to come on that later!

Anne Hanson of Knitspot was also in town and dropped by to say hello...and surprised me with a quick little air kiss which as you can see had me laughing so hard...what a funny moment that was!

Anne just happened to be in town for a week giving classes at Shall We Knit so a few of us from my local SnB packed up and ventured out to take one of her lace classes - lots to be learned and a great evening!

About a month after Knitter's Fair was the Woodstock Fleece Festival which we were attending for our second year. Each year this show gets busier and busier and we had a lovely day there as well talking to knitters and watching everyone enjoy all the fibre there was to be had!

What's up next for me? More shows of course! TNNA's Winter Show is in January in Arizona then we venture to Stitches West in California in February. Each show is a very long trip for us but we're really looking forward to it - Mr. Zen is really taking well to the yarns it seems!

Hope you're all doing well and if you're in the area of any of my shows, do drop by and say hello - the fun part of the shows is vending but it's also getting to put faces to names too!

And in the meantime, I also had my logos updated and am very pleased with them...in the next while you will see them roll out in my yarn labels and anywhere else I "inhabit" online.

The little bonsai tree has yarn in its branches...pretty cute, eh?

Stitches & Raphaelite.

Lots on the go over here and barely any time to blog it seems. I always have good intentions to get over here and write something but with the updating of Facebook, Twitter, Ravelry and Google+, my blog is falling down on the priority list.  I really shouldn't be neglecting it as I can write more here than I can anywhere else. Oh, the joys of juggling time.

So, if I saw you at Stitches Midwest last month, it was a pleasure! This was our first time venturing out to the show and it was oodles of fun. Absolutely exhausting too but 3 days of talking yarn and knitting with everyone was a hoot!

And to my delight, Mr. Zen's cousin Lisa agreed to come and help us this year. I must say, having someone else in the booth helping was really amazing. I am so used to relying on myself for everything as the business owner but after spending a weekend with Lisa, well, I think I might just be able to change my mind on that a little. Seems the more hands there are, the easier things become...who knew? I suspect it's a sign of getting older too - my energy reserves just aren't what they used to be...LOL

And I must give a really big shoutout to Lisa - she was absolutely fantastic to work with. She's a natural saleswoman too and the cutest personality you'll ever meet and the added bonus? Lisa is also a knitter and has that insane lust for luxury yarns like the rest of us. We are already plotting for next year's show!

Right after returning I managed to finalize my new shawl pattern too. This one started out as a bit of an experiment to see what the half-circle shape would be like then a quicker bind off than I had planned because I just had to see what it would turn out like. It's a lovely shawlette size and can very easily be upsized with more increases of the border.. I love this shape and have yet another design on the needles but with different lace motifs and I am definitely going to knit it a little longer now that my anxious "hurry up and see how it blocks" has been satiated with Raphaelite.

Save $1.50 for the month of September on my newly released pattern!

Raveled: Raphaelite Shawl

So how have you been? If you want to keep up with me in real time and not wait for a post every 3-4 weeks or so, I suggest you come on over and follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. I seem to update those accounts often.

Enjoy the rest of your long weekend everyone - knitting season is about to hit full swing as the weather cools! I like to think of this season not as Fall but rather "time to get out the wool" season!

Diadem.

Another shawl off the needles and completed! This design is by Ruth Greenwald and if you haven't joined our Light & Dark Lace Club, you're welcome to venture over to Ravelry and join our group. Ruth and I alternate between the bi-monthly shipments - she does lighter colourways and I do darker colourways which is kind of fun as it allows a nice variation from shipment to shipment. This colourway was actually one I had to fix from the original dyeing for the club in April so it's a bit different from the rest of the colourways used - however, I still really love it! Ruth's design called for a US5 needle but I decided to use a US6 just to make it a little bigger and the size is fantastic now that it's finished. I can wrap it around my shoulders easily and use a shawl pin to close it at the front.

Raveled: Diadem Shawl

While I'm not knitting I'm busy prepping for TNNA which is quickly approaching! I'm excited to be going just to be able to see what the market is like - unlike the shows in Ontario, the number of booths on the show floor could easily be at least 3x more than our biggest fibre show. I will be busy at my booth of course but I'm hoping to walk around to see what everyone has to offer.

Watch for a pre-TNNA sale - I'll be sending out a newsletter with details on Tuesday. If you haven't signed up for our newsletter yet, please do so here. 

Bacchus & FLS.

Wow, my knitting needles have been busy lately! I managed to knit, edit and test a new design and also finished a sweater for me. It's only been forever since I knit a sweater too - gosh, probably 7 years now or so. A part of me decided to stop knitting them because I wasn't a size 2 but WTH, right? Embrace your size and enjoy your handknits! If I wait until I'm the size I was when I was 20 I'll never get another sweater knit in this lifetime...LOL

So here she is...my February Lady Sweater. I chose to knit the sweater that's been knit by everyone else because looking through all the projects this sweater shape flattered every body size from tiny to larger and even looked adorable on the knitters who were expecting. I think it was a good choice for my return to sweater knits. The colourway I chose was Imperial Red in my own Serenity Worsted yarns and with anything handdyed there was variations between the skeins. Now, I could have opted to knit every other row with a different skein to mix the variations up a little more but I just threw caution to the wind and knit away and to my delight, the sweater ended up with a very unique flare to it that's unlike any other. Since the skeins are 200 yards each the variations are sectioned really and as the girls at my local SnB said "you can't see it unless you point it out!" so I will trust them and enjoy my sweater!

 

Raveled: Serenity February Lady Sweater

The whole "everything needs to match" when it comes to handdyed is something else I'd like to touch on...as a dyer, I do put my hands in the pot and with all the variables that need controlling for things to be exactly the same, I just can't achieve that no matter how hard I try! Some simple variables that affect the way colourways are dyed are (1) temperature (2) water quantity (3) acidity level (4) ambient temperature (5) speed of dye uptake (6) dye amount and even with naming 6 I still haven't covered them all. Now, if a commercial process has trouble making one colourway batch match another colourway batch, how in the world am I supposed to make all my skeins match exactly? It's very hard but that's also the innate beauty of handdyed - everything is unique! Sometimes it's hard to embrace that concept but it will permeate everything from the colour of the yarn to the finished knitted piece and this is where the artisitic quality lies too - nothing is ever exactly the same in art either. So if you're a knitter looking for perfectly matched skeins, I would suggest commercially prepared yarns but if you're a knitter who embraces a little adventure and loves unique, art-piece handknits then used handpainted yarns as much as possible!

And that's a nice segway into my latest design...Bacchus Shawl. I had a lot of fun both knitting this and designing it and I'm ever-so-grateful to my testers who were able to knit and give me fantastic feedback to make the pattern both as error-free as possible as well as make the knitting a little easier. To each of them - thank you for your valuable input!

Raveled: Bacchus Shawl

$5.50 USD 

Hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather! It's finally turned a little nicer here in Ontario but I did manage to wear my sweater at least a couple of times before it warmed up too much. Have a great week everyone!

Drive by.

I haven't been posting on my blog near enough these days but with Facebook and Twitter, it seems like I'm always over there so if you want to stay current, please come join me on either! What have I been up to lately? Dyeing and designing! I just finished dyeing up an exclusive blend called Sanctuary (love that name!) for Connie over at Pick Up Sticks and if you wanted to try a skein, she now has them in stock. This yarn is gorgeous - it's a blending of 40% superwash merino with 30% alpaca, 20% cashmere and 10% silk. Dyeing it was also an interesting feat as it behaved a lot differently than my other blends - alpaca can be a bit tricky but the results are gorgeous - these yarns are a nice even semi-solid that would be super cute for shawls, shawlettes, socks or even sweaters. Do venture over and give a skein a try :)

In other news, my latest design is tested and now I'm just in editing mode to get it ready to release. I finally took the plunge and had a tech editor look over my pattern. The comments are invaluable as I learn my way through writing up patterns that are a lot more easier to understand. I do have a name already for her - Monarca Shawl - named after the Monarch butterfly because the waves running through the main body reminded me of caterpillars and the edging looked very much like butterfly wings. Watch for this shawl's release this week!

And if you haven't seen it, I was just featured as Yarn4Socks.com's Artist of the Month for April. You can find a lot of really cute Spring colourways in Serenity Silk III in stock for the month - this yarn is gorgeous and I used it for my Mezquita Shawl design which, I'm excited to say, has been knit up by a few knitters - it's really quite fun watching the finished objects roll in and to see how knitters interpret your pattern through yarn choice.  I love it!

Now back to house cleaning...I really hate having to clean the house...the job just seems like it never goes away! Have a happy Sunday everyone!