My summer garden

I've already mentioned that Chris and I tackled a tomato garden for the first time this year, and it's been a huge success! We eat tomatoes every day and love them. I also have a few flowering perenials, which are my favourite things to have in my garden. They are so rewarding. They come back every year, and are so pretty.

We planted several different tomato specimens, but y'know, the sweetest ones and my favourite ones are the simple red cherry tomatoes.

Watching the tomatoes ripen on the vine is like magic. The way that they naturally ripen in a gradient rainbow is right up my alley!

Pretty right?

Nanook - FO

My Nanook (design be Heidi Kirrmaier) is finished, and it is perfect! After a good wet blocking the fronts of the cardigan flow open effortlessly. The fit in the body and sleeves is very comfotable and I have to say, knit up in my Orange Label Cashmere/Silk Worsted weight yarn, in the Sand colourway, it's pretty much a dream to wear.

What drew me to this pattern initially was the collar. It's a show stopper! But upon closer examination I was also really intrigued by the interesting construction elements. I love the combination of lace, garter stitch and stockinette stitch. And I really wanted to see how those gorgeous yoke increases would work out! They create a really pretty starburst pattern of increases along the upper back of the sweater and I think they are just so pretty. I'm mesmerized by how well fitting the resulting sweater is, it definitely makes me re-think the standard sweater yoke construction I usually use (set in sleeves or raglan yokes are not the only options!)

In the photo just above I love how the fabric transitions from sleek stockinette on the sleeve to textured garter stitch for the front. So pretty. It's details like this that really make a sweater design stand out for me. 

The pattern was really well written, easy to follow and fun to knit. The resulting cardigan is an instant favourite! I would even consider knitting it again. My mom is currently knitting one for herself in Atlantic, I think that everyone should knit themselves a Nanook! 

I knit this sweater as part of the Luvinthemommyhood Summer Sweater KAL and I've finished it long before the end date. What I should be working on is my Ravellenic games WIP wrestling challenge... How are your Ravellenic Games projects coming along?

Club - July 2012

The July instalment of the TFA Year in Colour Club was a pretty exciting one for me. This months designer is Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed! Kind of a big deal. I was really looking forward to working with him, and the resulting collaboration exceeded my expectations. So professional, so friendly and of course, such a great designer! Jared and I worked together to come up with this light grey Smoke colourway, and dyed up in the Red Label Cashmere/Silk Single ply yarn, it's so soft and dreamy. 

The Guernsey Triangle is a beautiful, geometric, triangular shawl featuring simple but dynamic knit and purl combinations. The look is so crisp and clean and so wearable. I just love it!

Me and my Stella

Last evening Chris and I braved the sweltering heat to take some FO shots of my recently finished Nanook. It was almost 30 degrees out there and I'm parading around in jeans and a cashmere blend sweater. The crazy things we do for knitting! 

At the end of our shoot Chris snapped a few close ups of me and Stella, and they just might be the best shots he's ever taken of us. Look at how bright her big brown eyes are! I love these. 

Nanook FO post coming son! 

Ravellenic Games

The Olympic Games start tomorrow! And you know what that means... the Ravellenic Games also start tomorrow! This is a time where athletes and knitters all over the world challenge themselves to accomplish something awesome. This year we've set up an unofficial TFA Ravellenic Games team, you can sign up in the TFA Ravelry group here. To qualify all you need to do is work on a project in either TFA yarn or a TFA pattern (or both of course!) 

I am going to be very busy over the next few weeks, working hard so I can take some time off to go to a friends wedding, so challenging myself with a massive project just isn't realistic. Instead, my goal is to finish as many WIP's as I can. I've had these two projects nearly completed for a long time now, it's time for them to cross the finish line! This is my Watercolour Blank Canvas Baby Sweater and my Deep Blue V neck sweater. 

The reason my Watercolour sweater is still incomplete is because I was using up little bits of leftover sock yarn to achieve the pastel gradient look, and I started running out of lots of colours! I needed more of that pastel-purple shade in the center of the sweater to feature on the sleeves, but I ran out. Luckily, I have a skein of Hedgehog Fibres yarn in a lovely pastel purple shade called Carousel that will substitute nicely. I cast on for a Clara Dress in this yarn yesterday and will finish it up as soon as I can so I can move forward and use the leftovers to finish the Watercolour sweater. I could have just used what I needed for the Watercolour sweater and then knit the Clara dress after, but I remember from my other Clara dresses (here, here and here... wow! I've gotten a lot of mileage out of this pattern!) that it takes very close to full skein of sock yarn to complete, and I didn't want to risk running short.  

Knocking a few languishing WIP's off my list will feel great. Are you participating in the Game this year? What are you working on?

Tour De Fleece Wrap Up

Week 1 of the Tour de Fleece was a huge success in my books. I spun 3 skeins, over a thousand yards, and was feeling great! I had high hopes that I could maintain that pace throughout the 3 week Tour. But... Ah, life. Stuff happened. A baby was born, weekends were occupied with day trips to visit her, my parents were helping out and that meant that Chris and I moved over to my parents house to take care of the dogs and the cat. I was away from my wheel for too long and production slowed down. Actually, production pretty much stopped. 

Week 2 got off to an ok start. I spun this gorgeous Coloured Denim roving into this beautiful skein; 100g = 350yds. 

Then I started working on this braid of Jazz Hands, unfortunately I only made it half way through the singles before life got busy. 

Even though the Tour is now over, I still plan on finishing up that last skein as soon as I can. I think that it just might end up being me favourite skein yet. With lots of variety in colours, it could either be really cool, or really weird, either way, I can't wait to find out!

Almost done!

Nanook!

Y'know, I don't know what I was thinking when I used the say that beige was boring or that Sand was my most blah colourway... it's fabulous! Obviously I've taken some liberties with the photo above (cool, sketchy photo frame) but doesn't it look like it's just glowing!? 

This sweater is so close to the finish line I can taste it! Half a sleeve left and then it'll be time for a blocking party. Those are my weekend plans... what are you up to?

First home-grown tomatoes!

Chris and I desperately wish that we were good gardeners... but we just aren't. Every year we start off really enthusiastic, but then things get busy, we forget about our gardens, things get overgrown, weedy, they die, it's all very sad. This year we've worked a little extra hard at maintaining the few plants that we chose, and it seems to be paying off. Who knew, if you water them, they will grow! Today for lunch we had our first meal of home grown tomatoes (a few different varieties) basil and parsley, all form our very own garden. The bocconcini, prosciutto, lettuce, olive oil and balsamic vinegar were from the grocery store. It was all delicious!

Annika - my niece

Here she is! My beautiful new niece Annika. Chris and I made the trip to Ottawa yesterday to meet her and fell head over heals in love. She's 4 days old and just the cutest little chickadee I've ever seen. 

Hello baby!

Babies make the craziest faces!

Chris and I are completely smitten with our new goddaughter.

Would you just look at those feet! Remember these booties?

I can't believe my brother is a dad. And a great dad! They're wearing matching outfits!

The happy family. Beautiful.

Everyone is doing well. Luke and Amanda are settling right in to parenthood, they're naturals! Baby Annika sleeps like a champ and spends most of the day just dosing and making the most ridiculously adorable faces. 

Oh, and she loves her booties. ;)

Smooth Sailing

Well, I could not be more excited right now. We just heard the news that my brother's wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl this morning, Annika! You can call me Auntie Tanis from now on. :)

I designed the Smooth Sailing baby blanket for them when I heard that they were expecting, and now it's officially time to share it. The blanket had to be unisex, since I didn't know the gender until today. I also wanted something relatively reversible, and wanted it to feature some sort of openwork motif (lacy without being too girly) because I knew that it would help it to block out to the finished dimensions I was aiming for without eating up too much yarn. I'm thrilled with the results. It features just the right combination of knit and purl stitches adding lots of texture. And those soothing waves that meander all the way down the blanket are so beachy and fresh. Love it!

I knit mine in the super lux Orange Label Cashmere/Silk Worsted weight yarn in a one of a kind colourway that is very close to Atantic, but with a little extra Seabreeze thrown in. This blanket blocks out to a generous 30" wide by 32" tall and uses just 3 skeins of yarn. Green Label Aran Weight would be a perfect substitute, though I have to admit, the softness and cushiness of the Orange Label makes for a dreamy blanket! I can't wait to wrap my new niece up in this! 

Though not identical on the front and back this lace pattern is equally attractive from every angle, definitely a bonus for a blanket.

$4.00

Details: 

Size: 30" wide by 32" tall.

Yarn: 3 skeins Tanis Fiber Arts Orange Label Cashmere/Silk Worsted Weight yarn, 75% merino, 15% cashmere, 10% silk, 115g (4oz) = 187m (205yds).

Needles: 5mm (US 8) 32" circular needle. 

Gauge: 1 repeat of chart = 3" wide and 3.5" tall.

Additional Tools and Materials: Tapestry needle.

Ravelry Pattern Page here.

Congrats to Luke, Amanda and their baby girl Annika!!! We love you all!

A swatch

My brother's baby was due on Friday... but the little joker has yet to arrive. In the family pool I predicted that the baby would come tomorrow, July 11th. I picked that date because it's my dad's birthday, so it's a special day already, why not make it super duper special? At this point it looks like there is a pretty good chance that it will be tomorrow, in which case I think that this baby and I will get a long very well. :)

I have been working on a secret baby blanket project for him/her... they don't know what they're having, it's going to be such a thrill to find out if this baby we've been waiting for is a he or a she! I have been predicting a boy all along (I know, apparently I consider myself quite the baby whisperer, I'm making predictions left and right!) Above is my swatch, the right side and the wrong side. Both sides are lovely, which is exactly what I was going for. A summer baby deserves a wavy, summer beachy blanket. I'm working on the pattern layout today and will hopefully have it ready to share by the time the baby comes! 

Club thoughts

It's already time to start planning for next year's Year In Colour Club. There has been some talk about it in the TFA Ravelry group, and I'm considering doing something a little bit different for 2013.

So far I've focused on fingering weight yarns for the Club, with the idea being that each skein is so versatile that the possibilities are really endless. However I'm thinking that next year we'll branch out and feature a different TFA yarn base each month, so you'd get to sample 6 different bases throughout the year. Pretty cool right?

I'd really love to hear your thoughts on this. Would you like to see a more diverse yarn Club, or do you like the versatility of fingering weight skeins? Are the patterns a deal breaker for you, or would you be interested in a yarn only Club? If you do want patterns, must they be printed, or would you prefer to receive digital copies? And what about price point, so far I've done my best to keep the price down by focussing on more affordable bases (mainly blue label) but by diversifying and including more expensive yarns (like Orange Label, Pink Label and Silver Label) I'd have to increase the price.

All ideas, suggestions, opinions are welcome! I really need your help!

Oh, and I should mention, I have considered running two Clubs simultaneously, however I'm pretty confident that it's more than I could manage... I've got other ideas about how to make more one of a kind skeins and patterns available but for now I'm focussing on one Club at a time.

Looking forward to hearing what you all think!

Pretty yarn shot!