To Market, To Market

The prettiest thing at the market yesterday....Anne's Red Pepper Jelly

The most patriotic and tasty item available.........Debbie's Go Canada! Pie

And the boutiquiest shared booth...if I say so myself...Joan and I rocked the display.

Don't even get me started on the rovings....

What a great day! It's a shame our next market isn't until April. Thanks to my friends who stopped by ;).

First Market of 2010

Ready or not....I knew the day was coming...I've been puttering in the studio, playing with new designs, but ramped up production has not been my focus. But here it is, already market season again.

So here I am, in the office, trying to get caught up on paperwork, with a basket of fibre still to be tagged for the show and I am feeling it. The work is good, it came from a studio full of inspiration, great collaberations and partnerships, loving support and all that is good with the world---because it is a fibre world.

Did I say lots of tagging?

Dying for the Drying

As I suspected, most of the rovings were still wet. Frack...I wanted to spin them all. I suppose it was good that they were still a bit damp because I need them for the market on the weekend, not to enhance my own personal stash.

Yep, still damp. Tomorrow morning my pretties, you will be ready for braiding, and then new ownership and then spinning....

Suzie is now part of the Thursday spinning group. I'm impressed by her ability to acquire new fibre and her prolific rate of spinning. Truly a girl after my own heart.

And in case you aren't in Vancouver......Spring has Sprung...100 g merino and tencel plied with baby alpaca.

Back to the Olympic highlights for the day. No television in the studio.

Photo Finish

The girls are leaving town today with a bit of extra knitwear. Rox looks amazing in her new MelonHead scarf and hat. And she'll need it. Snow in Toronto. Well our 10 days of viewing the city as tourists is over. But I will keep watching the games. Yes, I have the fever.

Now it's back to work. I have a bunch of rovings in the studio that need tending to and several more to dye. It's not going to be easy to have them ready for Saturday based on the rain, but I think today's will be okay. Pics to follow.

I'll be at Wise Hall on Saturday. Stop by if you can, say hello and fondle some fibre. I'll give you some privacy.

Olympic Blossoms

The blossoms are out in full force...Gorgeous. no waiting until mid March like last year.

This made me hustle my butt to the studio to make my bouquet skeins. I had a chance to hang the whole day with Joan and it made for a very creative day. I stuck to spinning (the most gap in my inventory) and I could see Joan working her clay from where I was. I'm so glad that my studio mates had me tear down the wall.

Cherry Blossoms on a gray day. It spun beautifully and I am definitely doing more of this colourway. Plied with baby alpaca.

And this little lovely. Hand dyed BFL plied, 100 grams, 118 yards. Chocolate covered strawberries.

Gotta go, have custom knitting and watching the hockey game.

I Can't Believe I'm Saying This.....

but downtown Vancouver was magical last night.

What was less magical was a line up to get into the Bay. Seriously. We were thrilled to go with our friends for some late night wandering and trinket shopping, but a line up?

I first sought out the "real" Cowichan sweaters and was disappointed by the sad messed up pile of 4 sweaters. There was a display of designers who had made coats from the Point Blankets and they were gorgeous. In between every few aisles was the much coveted little creature key chains. Something in a price range for everyone willing to part with their money. No, we didn't buy anything.
I did receive an Olympic pin from the grocery store last week for buying a litre of milk from an Olympic sponsor dairy company. It's in my purse somewhere.

Out to Deep Cove today to get away from all the "fun".

In the Spirit of Competion

While John and Alicia watched Canada mop the floor with Denmark.....I had a little noncompetition. Watching highlights of the games and enjoying a great Turkish coffee and some knitting before Roxie and I headed out for some Olympic shopping.

She picked up some amazing gear and my shopping (since I never really shop) took on an entirely different twist. A new piece of Lagostino cookware, some funky mixing bowls, a cat bed and bamboo salad forks. Having live in guests has made me realize that I have the kitchen gear of a starving university student.

I had an order of fleece arrive yesterday. So I will definitely be at the studio spinning while the girls are at hockey today. Tomorrow's a free day and we are looking for something to do..Any suggestions? We've already ruled out traveling to the Island.

Stay Tuned For Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

The Olympic thing is not helping the production like I thought it would. Perhaps it is having guests and keeping the house clean.

I did make a half hearted attempt at an Olympic event yesterday by going to the studio for the entire day to spin. I spun some singles. One I am attacking right now to knit a hat. Some fun plied art yarn happened as well. It's all at the studio drying now. But none of my work would really be medal worthy in terms of volume.

Today I am tackling some Olympic site seeing while John goes to his first Curling game. I will give myself one more medal opportunity on Sunday. Now to figure out the event.

No Medals Yesterday

My deadline for jury pieces reached an all time freak out yesterday, when I decided that my premiere scarf was not going to cut it. Up at the crack of dawn and down to the studio, I looked for another piece that would work for jurying. Perfectly satisfied, I came home to finish my CV to send with the package.

The more I looked at the scarf I rejected, the more I felt it would work with a few more changes.....Only 3 hours left for shipping to meet the deadline and I am completely reworking this. Not only did I not deserve a medal, I should be stripped of the ones I have.......like someone who has failed drug testing...It's a sickness really.

The results were worth it but I am spent.

I need a new event for tomorrow. Can I take it easy on myself and make it finishing a custom order? We'll see. I am saving Thursday for my spinning marathon. As it is, it will be a full group. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to this. There will be new faces and that can only enhance the dynamic.

Here is the box pre post office. Thank you kind postal lady for making the Canada Post guy wait for my parcel. Talk about cutting it to the wire.

Okay...so one custom order to finish? Two hats. Bronze....Two orders finished...Silver....Custom dye yarn as well.....now that could be worth a crafter's gold.

Medals and Bouquets

Well I knew John would be able to make it happen. Gold, baby. He retrieved our friends without incident and delivered them in under 1 hr to our door. My hero.

The spare room challenge left me exhausted and with a bronze to show for my efforts. The steam cleaning did not happen. And I was so close.....I can live with a bronze...more exciting however is a room that can actually be used.

Valentine's Day is a great way to enjoy company. John and the girls had been out shopping and sight seeing on Granville Island while I was working in the studio and when I came home the house was filled with tulips and roses.

I haven't even begun to work on my most crucial event. Jury piece completion. Tomorrow is going to be excruciating. And this is not about medal placement. It's about whether or not I get to be in a show so for once, no f**ing around. I will still manage to fit in a quick visit to the Athlete's Village tomorrow before heading off to the studio.

It will be a long day but an inspired one. Nothing is more inspiring than a fire under your ass.

Medal Standings

At this pace I will be tied with the Jamaican team for medal standings. I have never worked through such a pile of grief in my life. I found several intriguing things in and amongst the flotsam (wondering if I should give myself a medal for the excavation alone).

• a collection of Turkish language tapes.
• a piece of jewelry I thought I had lost forever
• my old MelonHead labels
• a plastic glow in the dark bat necklace?

It gets weirder, but I think you get my drift.

I have only completed 7 out of the 8 hats and didn't get them to the store. I also left the house in my pj's for a large coffee and a newspaper and skulked back home to get my sorry ass back to work. I'm feeling the pressure. Good thing I'm not representing a country.

I hope Alicia and Roxanne can find it in their hearts to forgive me. I wanted the welcome basket stuffed with Olympic souvenirs and now it will just be clean towels. Now to clean out my closet. I guess I'm not really not going to be using the exercise ball in the near future and can commit to deflating it.

John wants to go tomorrow's event alone. It is the airport. I think I'll let him. It may be our family's only chance for gold.

Olympic Hopeful

After much debate (with myself) I have decided to take up the torch---but keep it far away from the fibre. I have a full plate with guests for the entire time and an upcoming show as well as other deadlines. Which makes this all the more stressful and exciting.

I have decided on 17 events for the 17 days and will be awarding medals to myself based on completion. BTW each day of events must also include one Olympic venue being attended or the day's medal is forfeited --with the exception of today...

Here is my list of events so far. I am accepting suggestions and will be organizing the days as I go. Really, feel free to suggest an event. I'm pretty open minded.

Day One - Opening Ceremonies

I'm going pretty easy on myself for this one. I must finish 8 Olympic hats today....Now, this is actually a two part event as I must ride my bike to the yarn shop to drop them off tomorrow. It is a couch event for the first part and will include watching the opening ceremonies. I get to start before the opening ceremony as long as I am working only on Olympic knitting. No personal knitting or spinning allowed.

• Gold - 8 hats completed and delivered
• Silver - 8 hats completed but I walk to the shop
• Bronze - 8 hats completed but I take public transit to the shop.

Day Two - Spare Room Half Pipe

This is a crucial event with a lot riding on it. My guests are coming in 2 days, in less than 24 hours by the time I finish the cleaning. The room must be emptied of extraneous goods (meaning wool bins, the closet must be emptied, welcome basket must be filled and all traces of 3 cats must be eradicated from the room. I must also find the pump for the blow up bed and photograph the completed room.

This is the most challenging and medal standings will be based on the following.

• Full disclosure and a photo of the completely cleaned room -Gold
• Room completed but welcome basket only has clean towels - Silver
• There's no time to steam clean the carpet but all other conditions have been met- Bronze

The Airport Bobsled

This is a team event in which John, myself, YVR and our guests must all participate. In order for medals to be awarded the following conditions must be met

• Guests must tm arrival time. We must leave at that time, be able to find parking and our guests and exit the airport and return back to our house within 1 hr - Gold
• We cannot find parking at the airport, argue about where to find parking but we still meet our criteria for getting home - Silver
  
• All goes well, but navigating traffic has us arriving home later than our 1 hour finish time -Bronze
  

Medals disqualification for doping or road rage.

You get my drift. There is one team event that I will need help with and that is an entire day of spinning either at my house or at the studio. Please let me know what day you are free for this to happen and we will find the best day to fit it in. And now for your yarn p0rn pleasure, the results of the spin in at the studio last night. Photos were taken this morning on South Granville

Hand dyed, carded and hand spun BLF, silk noil, tussah silk, merino and corriedale with dyed mohair locks. Plied with baby alpaca.

Hand dyed roving, hand spun BFL. Squishy and fabulous. Looking forward to your input.

It's Here.....

and our friends are coming, and the tourists are here, and there will be line ups at my favourite restaurants and I need a treasure map to find Costco, and no one can park near my house or the studio and the buses are all full of people with suitcases and.....my jury pieces still aren't done and the back bedroom still has remnants of studio crap in it and....

oh hell, the Olympics are here. Can't stop it so might as well get into the groove. I will not however,

• Buy red mittens
• Have a Canadian Flag sticking out my car window
• Eat red and white cupcakes
• Buy a cute cuddly Squatchy, even when it goes on sale after the big "O" is done.

The studio has undergone a major renovation to accommodate my growing Thursday night group.

This is the carding corner with the scale and fibre so that spinners can make their own batts with plenty of elbow room. I like having a dedicated section just for that.

The spinners now have their own area, a bit more roomy than before with a surface to rest their coffee/tea or fibre. Finally. The knitting area has a small project table and easy access to the coffee pot. Thanks to the mountain of folks who contributed...you all know who you are, but a special thank you to Toni, who kept me from throwing a match into the building while we were sorting wool.

I have two containers of hand spun since the last shows ended. I'm shocked because I didn't think I had been spinning much.

I have lost some teaching classes due to students not wanting to travel from the north shore. Boo, hiss. I am making up for it by finishing off a pile of Maple Leaf hats to put in the window at Birkeland. They are pretty spiffy and made locally. Who wouldn't want that? Back to work.

My Very Own Tardis!

I can't believe Paula knit this for me! Apparently I've mentioned Dr. Who on my blog a few times. At least enough to get someone to knit and felt me a Tardis.

It's now resting comfortably on my corner chair. Neither the cats nor John have any idea what it is. I like that. Did you notice the bejewelled light on the top of the Police Box. Brilliant Paula!

As well as having extreme Tardis knitting abilities, Paula is also an olympic style organizer. Between her and Mariegold yesterday and Toni and Jennifer the day before, my studio is being whipped into shape. I'm working on incorporating an ugly couch into the room as well since the size of the drop in's has gotten quite a bit larger and there are more knitters hanging around to keep the spinners company. Cool.

The freeform knit and crochet class is coming up soon. I'll keep you posted. Right now I'm thinking of a full day workshop with lunch and want to know when in March is good for most of you. Also if sushi works out for most of you for lunch. Of course there would be truffle cupcakes.

In other news.

• My jury pieces are lagging a bit and time is running out.
• I accidentally bought more yarn
• Watching Hoarders makes me feel better about my growing stash
• I've managed to break 300 yards in a 100g skein.
• Lace is great (even better than intarsia--less ends to weave in)
• If anyone was to ever take my Denise needles from me, I would hurt them.

Intuitive Design

The Denise needles have freed me. I am knitting in several different directions now (literally) on the same piece.

I am completely lost in this project and it is a glorious feeling. Often Iwould tackle free form with crochet only. I would rationalize that only crochet can give you the glorious curves that make a free form piece so organic. Not so. If your needles can bend and curve, so can your work. That's not to say that I won't be incorporating some crochet into this piece, but now I have options.

My only reason to leave this design behind is a half filled bobbin of hand dyed bamboo at the studio (it is calling to me) At present, it seems to be a fingering weight. I know....shocking. It's taking forever. But I'm sure I'll have it done tonight and will be able to post tomorrow.

Conversion

And they are all mine!!! I am definitely channeling Pearl. This is her thing, not mine. Somehow, I own them and am knitting my first hat on this lovely set of Denise needles. I even shifted from moving to double points to working with two circulars on my current hat pattern.


I AM a fierce knitter. I am wiser and more efficient (after 15 years) as a result of one shift in my work. Now, based on the fact that this knitting is keeping me from my jury pieces, I should toss it to the side and get back in the groove. Screw it, these needles are just too exciting, and the speed.....holy crap.

I spent a great night at the studio last night. I love having other spinners hanging out with me. I did manage to spin a bit and have decided to shift to smaller skeins for people who just want a taste of the fancy.

This is a lovely combination of hand painted merino and bamboo with hand dyed mohair locks tossed it.

60 grams
70 yards of shiny silky loveliness

Any takers?

The intermediate class I am teaching at Birkeland starts next week. There are only a few spots left, so call the shop or go online to register to make sure that you have a space. This class is perfect for someone who has taken one of the beginner classes.

A Great Day For Finishing

A custom order - Sakura

Hand dyed silk and wool with angora cherry blossoms.

A jury piece - Reaching

Hand spun natural and dyed wool, intuitively decides its own form.

Rovings dried and braided

100 g handpainted BFL

105g Handpainted Kid Mohair

100g Handpainted Kid Mohair

I didn't take photos of the tussah silk still drying or the chunky merino ( but I'm still trying to finish hats going to California and Germany. Joan was in the studio today working away on her clay. I love that the studio is starting to be used to it's full potential.

All Things Lie Within This Tiny Space

It was a long fruitful day at the studio yesterday. One of things I enjoy most about being there is just walking down Main Street and poking through the shops. I fell in love with this. Textile artist Jen Thorpe just captured something magical for me.

It's made completely from recycled materials and the heart is just velvety. I've done so much cleaning and editing that I actually have the perfect place for it.

An unhurried day today. Just three orders to finish and off to the studio to rinse some rovings and chunky merino.