How lucky can I be?

Knitting for a living will not make you rich in the ways of early retirement, but the satisfaction is enormous. I don't know if other knitwear designers have the same experiences that I do, but I seem to have this strange and wonderful connection to the people that I knit for.

I received this photo in my inbox just a few minutes ago from my favourite customer (Linda). She was in love with the baby bee hat, but wanted something girlie so we decided on a SHE BEE which I had done several years ago and then just forgot about. She also wanted booties (which I don't normally do) but I could not say no to Linda. you'd have to meet her to understnad this....extremely charming and persuasive...this was the result....

And then something with earflaps that would be extremely girlie....and then this.

More than the designs and the designing, are the people that I create these items for. I connect to them, they connect to me. There is something incredible about my job. I had another e-mail from Linda a few days ago, and I'm going to just share a small piece of it with you...

"I just wanted you to know how HAPPY I was with each of them. Exactly what i wanted and more. I was more than delighted seeing them all. Your creations were perfectly precious...... In the meantime, thank-you for your hard work, having knit them with love ...... I appreciate and your precious works of art! "

Oh, here's a picture of the other wonderful baby in his sheep hat.


I am on a compliment high right now.....I feel that I need to pay it forward and get in touch with Krista (the hand painted roving I just received).

What a wonderful day.

Good things come in Canada Post Packages

How do you make me happy....so easy....a surprise delivery of a huge box of hand painted roving. Thank you, thank you Krista...I let her pick the colourways so that I could be inspired by someone else's choice of colour...


Voila..Roving Porn



Already spun, two hanks of the green brown and cream colourway --reverse plied with with a contrasting green Drops Alpaca on which I added 12 green felted circles with little faux pearl centres. I don't have the yardage, but each ball is approximately 70 -75 g. This will be enough for a hat ----must not knit this yarn, must sell, must not knit it.......control yourself Carmen.

Also spun, two balls, 50 g...beautiful browns and oranges.


And finally, working on this afternoon in the coffee shop......

....have drop spindle, will travel....

Yarn cuddles,

Carmen.

Teaching What is Natural

Holli asked me if I would like to teach a workshop at the Knitting Guild in the next few weeks. I would have to have my proposal in by Friday. Funny, because I have been thinking about teaching for a while.

I often wonder what it is that makes my work just a bit different and I've realized that I really treat the knitting as fabric and more of a canvas. This is why I end up with a lot of embroidery and surface work or combination knit and crochet. I rarely considered the finished knit, "finished" unless I've been able to manipulate it further in some way.

Hence my workshop.........Surface embellishment, overdesign or how to make a silk purse from a sow's ear.......Okay, too lengthy for a title....Help me folks.... I am thrilled and can hardly wait to drag the laptop to Blenz, sit in the comfie chair with an Americano and let the workshop flow onto paper....Now it could be a total flop and nobody may be interested in taking it...

Let's see what I can pull together. If nothing else, it should be entertaining to watch me teach it!

My last few days have been devoted to a store order. Barefoot Contessa has two stores in Vancouver. Very gorgeous and shi, shi. Eva will be carrying the baby pirate hats in the Commercial Drive and Main Street location.

The rest of the time has gone to resizing the Beehive hat to infant and 2-4 year size....Not as easy as I thought it would be .....new pattern worked out over 10 hats....arghhhh. But the results....just lovely...

Beyond Adorable and other stuff

I don't think I've ever said this before, the knitwear is irrelevant...don't even look at the hat and scarf...Look at this beautiful child! Holli (having a child gives her access to other children), hooked me up with this outstanding model. I can provide no details about her at this time as casting agents from all over will try to take her away from me. Thank you Karen for lending me your daughter. Quite the monkey on the climbing wall!

I actually managed to drop off an application before the last hour it was due. This is exciting for me. Almost all of January and February this year went specifically to new designs. This was a change, but necessary. No shows, no selling, just creative work. It was intense and wonderful.

Now I have a specific plan and direction for the year (also new for me). Each month will focus on one specific task.....The rest of February will be for spinning new yarns for example. I haven't worked out all the kinks yet, but it will be fabulous when the plan comes together.

My fibre friend from Oddwear and I have a plan for the fall that is just too wonderful. We are considering a cross country fibre buying road trip. All would be documented on the way, podcast and blog wise....let me know what you think. Seriously. More details to follow.

Received some new fleece today...This is my favourite colour ever....
I have some strange and unusual plans for this yarn. I am going to make vampire skeleton yarn. It will be a thick thin spin, then I'm going to ply it with fine black cashmere on which I will be threading these skull beads...

I know, plastic skulls and cashmere....It's been in my mind for a while....time to make it happen. Now where did I put that cashmere...got to go!

The Studio

Finally cleaned up enough for a photo op..... Please note that this is only a fraction of the yarn, finished work and handspun goodies, but this is certainly where most of the action happens. (Other than production work at Starbucks, Blenz, Bean Around the World and JJ Beans, of course).

This is all I have for now. Just getting back to finishing this jury application. It is due tomorrow ----shocking------and I still have to print out lots of stuff and make it look pretty. Wish me luck.

The Race to the Finish

I don't know why I stopped designing my baby sweaters. This was lovely to knit, piece together and embellish. It took a while, but it was worth it. I am more thrilled with the hat since I don't often see knit baby hats with flaps. This design is in a pure merino. Okay, so it's a hand wash, but tell me it's not worth it?

I was hoping this would be 6 month size, but it is more for a one year old, the hat as well. This is one more jury piece finished.

Most of the day today was spent with Holli, taking pics of the latest pieces for submission. I love the photos of her with Devan more than the ones of the hats, however, I am going to make this about the hats and scarves.

Introducing Autumn

Six feet of leaves and branches knit in a 70 wool/30 silk blend.

Cherry Blossoms. The scarf was incomplete without the hat. For the first time I actually had a hard time designing the hat. I didn't want something that would overwhelm the scarf, so I decided on a modified beret/pillbox style, trimmed it with the pinks, knit the body in the variegated browns so it would serve as a nice base for the blossoms I would add to the hat.

I needed them to really belong on the hat, not just swarm it, so the single branch with blossoms seemed like the perfect solution.

And finally, the beehive hat. I was thrilled that the adult hat actually fit Devon (and I just happened to have some matching wrist warmers in my purse). I love this picture!

This is just wrong!

No, we do not use the fresh handspun for a pillow. Bad cat!

I promised myself when I started this blog that it would not be about the cats or my never ending diets and as knitty, knit as possible. So here I go breaking my first rule. We have 3 cats, 2 since they were kittens and they learned to develop a healthy respect for the yarn and keep their distance.

Apparently this lesson has not translated to our 3rd fur child. The fluffier the spin, the more entitled she feels. We will call this photo, Asia's last fuzzy throw pillow. What is actually is ---70g of dyed mohair locks and uncarded fleece spun randomly.

I am thinking of selling the smaller than 100g skeins for knit accents and trims in the upcoming patterns, so alas I will not be knitting this.

Happy Valentine's Day

Ravelry will Kill Productivity!

Be very afraid, and then squeal with delight. This online knitting community makes me finally feel like I have found a home on the web. It is easy to get lost, forums, chats, tips, patterns,yarns, other designers.....oh my god, it was amazing.

Even better than that, my absolute inspiration designer in free form crochet sent me an e-mail through the site telling me that she loved one of MY designs......A knitter's nirvana!

I am still plugging away on the jury pieces.

1.leaf scarf-- needs a hat
2.cherry blossom scarf---needs a hat
3.handspun blossoms -done
4.baby sweater - in pieces
5.neck wrap handspun - done
6.beehive hat and neck wrap - done
7.felted pancake hat-on needles

Okay, not so bad....

I am expecting an emergency delivery of some cure all hot and sour soup when John gets home. Check me out on ravelry as well as the multitude of talented designers.

Ciao for now.

Virus vs.Carmen and John

The virus wins again! 2nd time sick in less than 2 months and only days to complete jury stuff. Thank God I can knit while laying on my back, hacking and still trying to think good thoughts.

Yesterday belonged to Holli. These business forward meetings are quite exciting and now the deadline is in. I have a photoshoot and a pattern to get out by next week.....Any volunteers for models besides myself, Devan and Holli?

Today was finishing and shipping a wholesale order(done and done) and mailing a belated Christmas package to my friend Julie in Ontario.

I will not let the virus defeat me, I will not let the virus defeat me.....Knitting excessively CAN destroy germs!!!!

First Cherry Blossoms of the Season

Words cannot describe how happy I am with this piece. I don't care how long it took to make it. Branches from silk and wool and blossoms and buds from wool and lambswool. This was thrilling. When something looks like what you planned for it to look like and one branch at a time.

Even John, who doesn't get exciting about my more avant garde pieces made my try it on and model it. High praise. I took it for a walk today (test run) if you will and the feedback in just a couple of blocks was amazing. These are the moments when I treasure what I do for a living...Can you live on compliments, almost. Therefore my first listing on the blog for sale.

Okay, so I haven't figured out how to get the button higher on the page yet, please bear with me. This is $90.00 Can, plus applicable taxes.

Two Down - 8 to go.....Toni to the rescue

In case of an overwhelming yarn emergency, we all have one friend that we can call who will drop everything for the adventure of shopping for and fondling wool. This is a TRUE friend. Thank you Toni for that amazing trek across town and all your colour advice.

Vancouver has some terrific yarn shops that even though I wholesale, I still need to pop in to see the best, newest, shiniest yarn for inspiration (and inevitable purchase). Urban yarns was the first stop on our quickie tour......

They are having an amazing pre inventory sale now, although I managed to fall in love with everything NOT in the sale bin......lots of Rowan and Fleece Artist....get in quickly before it's gone.

Then off to 3 Bags full for some fleece. yippee....needed to spin a piece to show for jury....and found Yummy Yarn....after that find I barely remember my name, the spinning or taking the photos...I was in a fleecy trance.

The colours were gorgeous....130 g of BFL all for my greedy spinning pleasure.




Heady, drunk with the spindle my ply consisted of felted lambwool sweater flowers, I think 10 in all through the spin. This will make a fantastic project for anyone wanted to knit with surprises. It's kind of like a prize in the bottom of the cracker jacks, but 10 times over......

The finished yarn.



Who loves you baby? Too pretty to knit.

5 Reasons Why Crochet is Better than Knitting

I never, ever thought I would say this, but on my nice trek across town today, I did find 5 excellent reasons why crochet is/was better for me today.

1. It takes up less space on the bus, and people are not horrified to sit beside me.
2. The crochet hook cannot punch a hole in my purse like my knitting needles did last week.
3. I was able to finish an entire adult hat in single crochet in one journey across town.
4. When the needle falls out of the work you only have to pick up one stitch.
5. I can impress complete strangers with my speedy work like some kind of crafty super hero.

But if anyone asks, I never said any of this.

One Down ----9 to go....

Today has been amazingly productive. The hat was a lot of weaving in of ends (not my favourite job, but it finished. The neck wrap did not work with the short rowing and I pulled it all out....the nature of the beast when you design on the needles instead of graphing out the design in advance.

My redo on the neck wrap was picking up on one end sideways and running the same rows on the vertical. I cast off to include button holes and the vintage suiting buttons in black worked out very well. I decided against the wrist warmers....overkill...



All I had to was sew in the new labels.....One of my Christmas presents from John this year...



I am going to try to finish 2 neckwraps tonight and another fern scarf....

Happy evening knitting to all.

Getting into the Groove

Let's cut to the chase, no romance here, my goal, 10 new pieces created in 10 days.....Can I do it....?.Well just to make things difficult, the first one is a set hat and neck scarf...



I am working through this in grey/black/cream tones in tweed, with just a pop of red. I want the focus to be on the stitches and construction rather than colour.

Hat is finished....just the seams to weave in.



I'm going in a different direction with the neck wrap, I thought it would be a straight rectangle, exact match under the hat, but then I started thinking that it would fit better with an angular finish, but I didn't want it in the ripple design. Picking up at the edge I started short rowing, adding button holes and we'll see how it turns out...I am committing to two versions, just in case



I think wrist cuffs might be in order as well.

Keep you posted.

Island Recap

Fast and furious, but it went off without a hitch.....Breakfast on the pier in Nanaimo in the morning.



We drove to Comox on the Island Highway and it started to snow, a beautiful chunky wet snow, but it had completed stopped and evaporated by the time we hit our destination.

The Filberg Lodge in commox is a beautiful heritage site. The festival itself is one of the best attented in BC and attracts some of the best artists in Canada....Here are a few pics of the lodge, and surrounding grounds.



The ferry ride home was fairly uneventful, but I did manage to get one design finished on the way home.

This crocheted design was the finest needle size I will ever use (2.5mm), but for the Lorna's Lace which is a gorgeous silk-wool blend it seemed to work.

I was going for something hip and slick for spring and I love the colours.



Enough fun. Time to work on the next selection of jury pieces. I am looking at 10 pieces for my next show application.