Hokitika Storm

22 May yummy yarn goodies

Hey friend,

I’ve finished my first two days at market and have done much better than I was expecting, but I had pretty low expectations. On Thursday, I set up and enjoyed the good (if not cool) weather and had some nice chats with market goers and vendors. I was set up beside a nice farmer from Lumby (via Quebec). Her friend was visiting from Montreal and we all had some laughs and I bought some of their yummy chives. Unfortunately, I didn’t get their names and I didn’t see them today, so I hope this doesn’t turn into one of those weird things where we just don’t ever get to know names… I’ll have to make sure that doesn’t happen. Hopefully I’ll see them next time again.

Yesterday was a rainy market day, and while the crowds were a bit, erm, thin for a long weekend, I had pretty good sales, and actually did better than my first day. I had some really nice chats again with new knitters, experienced knitters, other vendors and especially with Arnold from Cape de Hoop Tea. What a cool guy. He told me this crazy story about being a 13-year-old photographer with a secret darkroom under the stairs in his boarding school. They had no running water (as under-the-stairs-darkrooms generally aren’t plumbed), so they drilled a hole in the wall and ran a garden hose from the nearest faucet. Naturally, the hose had to be disconnected each time so as not to be discovered. He and his partner took  pictures of the school’s team athletes and while they had intended to sell the prints to the athletes themselves, it turned into a teenage fan thing. “The girls bought the photos of the boy athletes and the boys bought pictures of the girls.” Though I’m not a Harry Potter fan, I couldn’t help but draw comparisons. I’m pretty sure that story made my year. And so I bought some of his Honeybush tea which is just divine. I’ve been a huge fan of his rooibos for a while (you can get it an Nature’s Fare).

And now, as promised, the first story behind a colourway: Hokitika Storm.

In Hokitika NZ, on the south island’s west coast, we caught the brunt of an Antarctic front and watched the storm surge from the relative safety of our rented Tercel. Huge, frothy waves were crashing on the beach under the dark sky. The force of the wind and rain were pretty formidable and it was something to have the whole car shake in the wind. The storm stayed with us for almost 3 weeks, I think. We travelled almost 1500 km to Kaikoura before we had a day warm enough to shed 8 of the 9 layers of clothing in which we had been living.

Finally, enjoy the cute baby pictures. I sure did!

With love from the Maker’s House,

Sylvia

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Kettle Dyeing, Quickly

15 May

Hey Friend,

I’ve spent the last bit inventing colourways for the 14 lbs of yarn that arrived on my doorstep a couple weeks ago. I’m having tonnes of fun and getting some really nice results. I’ve been taking inspiration for the colourways from my travels. The colour palettes that arrange themselves in nature always astound me, and I’ve pulled memories of the environments through which I’ve travelled, traipsed and tip-toed in order to make some really unique colourways. The next few posts will show off some of the colourways that come directly from places I’ve been. Here are some images of the fun I had with chemistry… because what is fun art without chemicals, I ask you?

Now that I have all this scrumptious yarn, I’ll be taking it to the Vernon Farmer’s Market starting on Thursday. I bought a canopy and got it all set up so I know how it works, and I’ve borrowed a table from my friend Chantal.

One last thing. Did you ever wonder what would happen if you dyed a whole bunch of lace weight merino and hung it out to dry and then squirrels came along and thought it might make nice bedding? Well, truthfully, I’d never wondered that before. But I know a squirrel who did and it turns out to be a big, colourful mess. The blessing came in that I discovered his plans before he could done and R-U-N-N-O-F-T with it all. Actually, it sounds a lot worse than it was… I only had a very small meltdown before I worked through the pile of 6 skeins. I am able to ascertain that no yarn has been nibbled – he just chewed through the string that I used to hang it all and let it drop to the ground where he was going to come back for it. I think I’ve got it all sorted out  thanks to my method of meticulously tying my skeins in four places to prevent tangling. The most work came in picking vegetation out of the strands. I won’t know for sure until I can reskein them. I’ll keep you posted.

Well, that’s a short post, but the next one will be filled with pictures of mother’s day (my first!!!!) and the farmer’s market and COLOURS!!!

With love from the Maker’s House,

Sylvia

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Candlelight Lace Cowl Pattern

1 May Lace detail

Hey friend,

It’s been a long time coming, but here it is. The Candlelight Lace Cowl pattern I’ve been promising for aeons. Download it free here!I hope you enjoy it. It’s a simple little ditty of a knit, fun to make, more fun to wear and cozy!

In other news, I’m working on a pattern for a cable knit sweater for Swimmy and with any luck, it should be up in a few weeks time. And guess what arrived at my door this morning! That’s a box filled with 50 skeins of yarn waiting to be dyed into pretty, pretty colours. It’s lace, sock and DK weights in a variety of fibres and blends. More on that later though. Expect that to be my next post.

With love from the Maker’s House,

Sylvia

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Knitting Tip: Ugly Cables?

30 Apr

Hey friend,

A few weeks ago, my friend Chantal (of Cheeky Cosmetics) and I were discussing the problem we had both noticed with gaping cables in our knitting. I’ve come up with a solution to unsightly, and even downright UGLY, cables. I’m sure I’m not the first to figure this out, but I haven’t seen it anywhere else. When I googled it, I didn’t find a plethora of tips that didn’t simply refer to pulling stitches tight.

What I’ve written below out seems to work very well when used to treat gaping cables constructed using right-handed, English style knitting and though I haven’t tested it on left-handed English style or continental style or any of the other methods out there, it stands to reason it should work, but may need some adaptation. I’ll explain how I came to my conclusions first as a way to explain the mechanics of why this works.

I noticed some time ago that when I work 1×1 rib stitch, the ribbing is loose and unappealing to my eye. Then I learned about the wonders of twisted rib stitch and I’ve hardly worked a plain 1×1 rib since – I almost always go for the twisted method. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s simply working through the back loops, thus creating a twist which pulls the stitches together and creates more structured columns of knits and purls. The image at left shows plain 1×1 rib at bottom and twisted 1×1 rib at top.

The other important thing with respect to working cables is that the gaping always comes on the left-hand side of the cable  while the right-hand side is firm and shapely. This means that the problem comes (read: the gaping is created) when the transition is made from working knit to purl, rather than from purl to knit. Therefore, the goal is to create a left-hand side to the cable that is as attractive as the right-hand side. The image at right shows a column of cable worked with no special technique and identifies the gaping, baggy stitches to the left of the cable with a tiny black arrow.

So having identified this key feature of twisted ribbing, and having identified the source of the gaping, I thought there must be a way to apply twists to keep cables from gaping and after some trial and error, this is what I’ve come up with. These individual steps work together to create an even and firm left-hand side to the cable, but most importantly, I’ve determined through experimentation that these steps must all be worked together to get the desired effect.

General steps to follow on all rows:

  • (RS) The final knitted stitch of the cable must be worked through the back loop.

  • (RS) The first purl stitch of the section following the cable must be worked through the back loop.

  • (WS) The final knitted stitch of the section preceding the cable must be worked through the back loop.

  • (WS) The first purl stitch of the cable must be worked through the back loop.

Finally, the most important part. In the cable row, there are three stitches that must be worked through the back loop.

Stitch 1: The stitch which had previously been adjacent to the purl section and had, on prior rows, been worked through the back loop. This stitch transfers to the centre of the cable during the cabling process.

Stitch 2: The stitch which now takes the place as the new stitch adjacent to the purl section.

Stitch 3: The first purl stitch of the purl section following the cable.

Following these steps, you’re presented with a nice, tidy row of cabling with no icky, baggy stitches. Voilà!

As I’ve said earlier, this may need some adjustment to work properly with knitting which is not performed in the right-handed English style, but the stitches identified will be the same ones that create the problem, and therefore will be the same ones that need twisting  and correcting. There it is. My method of creating beautiful cables that refrain from ugly gaping sections.

If you’re a lefty and have tested this, let me know how it works for you – I’d love to hear.

With love from the Maker’s House,

Sylvia

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Random Notes: Memories of the Ol’ Enzed

3 Mar

Hi Friend!

I was cleaning up and doing some bits of baby-proofing while I came across this. I love it. I had to share. While travelling in NZ in September & October 2010, the only book I brought with me was Doug Coupland’s microserfs. There were so many things we wanted to remember about our travels, but we were perpetually low on notepaper, not to mention that we thought we’d just end up losing bits and scraps of paper. Then I had the idea to use microserfs as our dumping ground for all the things we wanted to remember. Not opposed to writing in books (I recognise that it`s a cardinal sin among a certain crowd), and because I knew I wouldn’t be getting rid of the book (I love Coupland’s writing and we’re both notorious collectors of books), it became a sort of pen and ink shrine to Enzed. And the cover design actually lent itself to the purpose. So here are a few pictures. The whole book looks like this, but I only took a few photos. Almost every page has notes in the margins, but I tried to spare the text of the novel so I can read it again and again… for different reasons every time.

Each scribble brings me back and I get laughing. I should add one right now to the list of ONES: One firealarm to rule them all. Oh but wait. That happened twice.

With love from the Maker’s House,

Sylvia

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