And we have a match.

I finished the matching scarflette yesterday, but three posts in one day --- I will make all attempts to deal with what is turning into an OCD by too frequent posting. (Or maybe I'm just really busy)

When you spin your own yarn and then knit it, you are bound to get an original design. What I have only discovered recently (through a conversation I had with my pal Judy) is that the yarn has it's own nature and that I did not need to have perfect yarn to work with it.

Now I am actually searching for different characteristics in the spinning and trying to see how to incorporate them into a design. There is a double pleasure in designing from the wool up.

When I was sitting in the cafe yesterday, a bunch of names of pieces came to me. They have not been designed yet. So I am giving myself a challenge......Reverse engineering hat and scarf design.....Titles first, and then design inspired by that.

Names of hats yet to be made......I will cross them off the list and provide photos once they are knit. This will be a limited edition collection.

• Her Taste Runs to the Fantastic
• Questionable Landscape
• The Heart Decides
• Unrelenting
• Passion Provides
• These Grey Days
• I've Been Here Before
• When Common Sense does not Prevail
• Winds of Change
• A Garden I remember ------done.
• Twist of Fate -------done
  
• Protect Me
• Circular Momentum
• Tidal Impulses
• Where I Dwell
• Small Voices
• A Bump in the Road -----done.
  
• YOUR SUGGESTION HERE......

So if you have a title for a design that you would like to challenge me to work with, I will pick the best one and send the winner a thank you ball of hand spun.....Retail value $40 - $50.... This odd little contest will run until the end of May.

Readers meet Carolyn.....

I spend many mornings out knitting in public at the local coffee shop in the hood. Blenz is my favourite coffee shop in town for a number of reasons.

• Baked goods -awesome
• Staff - terrific
• Free wireless
• Holli and I have a lot of meetings there
• Interesting customers
• No one EVER asks you to leave.

My record for time spent at Blenz was Boxing Day 2007 when I spent 11 hours seaming together 47 hats. (again, and no one asked me to leave).

Carolyn has been my favourite barrista and often would ask me about what my current project was. Today I found out she is leaving on Thursday.....The summer off for travel and contemplation----I'm jealous---but I wish her the best.

I named today's design finished in Blenz after her. "Carolyn" is a free form crochet design from three of my own hand spuns as well as one ball of Malabrigo in "Lettuce". The gold was so energized I didn't know what to do with it and suddenly, the perfect place for it to rest. I crocheted it into this design.

Here are a few more views of a hat I truly enjoyed designing. The rest of the afternoon will be dedicated to designing a matching (sort of) scarflette.


It's been a while since I've allowed myself the luxury of free form play.

Holli wears a hat!

Holli and I met my first year in Vancouver, as the current president of the West Coast Knitter's Guild, it is a thrill to know her. Her designs are exceptional design work...gush, gush and you must check out her designs.

www.beeskneesknits.ca

My head is still swimming from our conversations yesterday as I consider taking the business in a new direction by letting my designs be set free for others to knit....Staggering, exciting and a bit scary all at the same time.

Here is a picture of Holli in one of my designs on our afternoon impromptu photo shoot.



This design has seen several reworks. The first one was a commission for an acorn hat. That hat was a delight to make. I knit it in a lovely South American wool/alpaca blend, nice and chunky on 6mm needles. Basically I used an exaggerated tam and then gave it the extra pooch and nub at the top. Because of adding the flaps, I felt it needed a bit more balance and crocheted a few little acorns to add to the ties on the flaps.....voila...



I love the deeper rim with the seed stitch. The additional texture is more "acorn like". Now this is how I've always approached design. So here's the acorn......what's next? What have I learned from that shape and wear can I take it next.

The next hat was a play on the shape, deeper rim, more beret, no flaps.




As much as I enjoyed the look of this hat, the top was too much of a flying saucer to me, too floppy. Version three (which is Holli's hat is the fulled version of the hat above. Shrinking the hat was an amazing effect. The top which was too out of control shrunk and became a lovely fabric and the rim (which was in a wool acrylic blend) stayed the same, actually became softer, which is a lovely feature considering this is what will be on the forehead.

Having such a great fabric on the top was an invitation to a bit of embroidery in the rim yarn to balance the design and tie it all together.



I'm not finished with this design yet. It will probably be similar in design, but now I'll do a bit of colour work which may impact the shaping somewhat.....Stay tuned. Since this will not be one of my jury pieces, I think I'll pop it up on Etsy.

A New Year and New Inspiration

I was so thankful for last year. Although it was more production and less creation, the work was out there. After 4 years in Vancouver, I am now guaranteed a MelonHead KnitWear hat or accessory sighting in my travels in the city.

January is an exciting month...aside from the wonderful snow ---hurray---! it is the month for jurying. As an artisan trying to get my work out there, I have to submit my pieces for consideration. Let me tell you BC is textile heaven and the competition fierce. This is not a disadvantage, to the contrary, it inspires me.

My friend Judy is a great inspiration and this piece was designed for her.


This piece is a compilation of techniques, upcycled and felted cashmere as the base and Noro (handpainted Japanese wool for the adornment. After much hunting I found the perfect vintage pearl buttons for closing.....

I love a new year, new designs and new friends to share them with.

I can't "kelp"myself!

With the fiddlehead ferns out of the way, it was time to move closer to the water.....Sea creatures...one suctioned to the hat and the other with tendrils moving away from the hat.

Intriguing for design, this is what I love the most, blending knitting and crochet. I am working a little series of 10 and then I will move on....At last count this morning I was on number 5...wish me luck...

Although I already have some grades of grey, white and black in the works......Variagated is the theme of the day...whatever I want to make has to be in the variagated Super 10 that landed in an enormous box on my front porch last week.

What to do with the pink?