Guilded Lily

WOW....I am still reeling from being in a room full of knitters and crocheters. Someone was even using a skein winder to untangle a beautiful hank of fleece artist yarn....It was better than heaven.

I think I brought too much "stuff". I wanted to bring samples of my work, but I ended up with a table that was full of accessorized wicker soldier heads to do my bidding....It was a bit over the top. I had a terrific time and really enjoyed chatting with the group and sharing knitting stories...I would do it again in a heartbeat...I know I told Judy and Toni I wouldn't, but now blogging it(rather than being in the thick of it) I realize that it was good clean fun.

No pictures unfortunately....thanks to the knitters who listened to me ramble for so long!

Colour Me Happy!!!

So many things, so little time to describe them. We'll start in date order....

First Kit and Pattern

Thanks to Krista for the hand dyed roving inspiration again. My first handspun hat kit is finished..Just need a volunteer test knitter and a pattern editor and I am done...Here is the photo of the yarn and completed design. This design in called "Eat Your Peas".


Let me know what you think. The kit including pattern and all wool to complete the project is $45.00. This will include 65g of the original hand spun and 50g of the coordinating commercial yarn which will be handpicked for each kit from my personal stash.

Guest Speaker at the Guild

I will be giving a talk on Knitting for a Living on Tuesday, March 4 at the West Coast Knitters' Guild at 7:00pm. Bring your needles and stop by if you have a chance.

Workshop at YLFMS

I will be giving a workshop with the talented Joan Taylor at the AGM for the Farmer's Market Society on March 15th on Craft Collectives. This will be an information session with suggestions for how crafters can maximize their experience selling at the Farmer's Market. In particular we will be talking about the Trout Lake Market.

Workshop at the West Coast Knitters' Guild

This workshop will cover a broad range of topics. The cost for the workshop is $40.00 which includes the 3 hour workshop and lunch. If you want to take your knitting projects to the next level, give them something that is truly yours or rework an existing FO that is a bit dated, then this is the workshop for you.

Bring your own existing projects to work on or a test swatch and the coordinating yarns. For more information check out the website for the guild or email me with any questions. I look forward to seeing you there.

Back to the finishing my samples for the chat on Tuesday.

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.