Visit to Gaspereau Valley Fibres :)

May 2010 Yarn from Gaspereau Valley Fibres

It had been a while since we were up Wolfville way so I was very happy to be able to stop by Gaspereau Valley Fibres Farm Wool Shop again; so much fibre to pet and extremely friendly service — what’s not to love?

I had a list (I’m all about being prepared) – there were a number of yarns I wanted to sample for some projects that are in the planning stages.

So, after a happy half-hour of filling my list and another happy half-hour of browsing, these ended up in my shopping bag for the ride home (front from left to right):

1) Fleece Artist’s Nyoni (65% merino, 20% kid, 10% nylon, 5% silk)

2)Hemp for Knitting’s “Hempton” (AllHemp6) “Foggy 10″

3) O-Wool’s Balance (50% cert. organic cotton, 50% cert. organic merino)

4) Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca (50% alpaca, 50% wool) “black 6245″

5) Brown Sheep’s Cotton Fleece (80% cotton, 20% merino) “Putty”

and at the back (left to right)

6) Crystal Palace’s Mochi Plus (80% merino, 20% nylon) “colour 558″

7) Briggs & Little’s Regal (100% wool) “Blue BW”

Sigh — there were so many other nice yarns that just couldn’t come home with me. Good thing I had a list!

Hmmmm, I see a very blue / neutral theme – wonder how that happened?

Celtic Child: Forest Paths Baby Blanket pattern

Published June 1, 2009:  Forest Paths Baby Blanket — details on the Knitting Patterns page and lots more on the website (link is on the Pattern page).

On to write up the “little purple hat” pattern — it is beckoning me……….

Nova Scotia Local Yarn Shops Page

The Nova Scotia LYS page has been getting a lot of hits, so remember to leave me a comment if you have any Nova Scotia yarn shops to add to the list. Let’s support our LYS’s!!!

SHEARING DAY/BACK to BACK CHALLENGE at Gaspereau Valley Fibres is back again this year on June 6th — an International competition that has newly shorn wool spun and knit into a sweater — last year’s record setters were from Toronto with a time of just under 6 hours! The second-place team from Australia was only about 13 minutes behind!

New Blog Pages: NS LYS and Cable Info

Those of you who have very keen eyes have probably noticed that  I’ve added 2 new pages to the blog: 1) Nova Scotia Local Yarn Shops and 2) Cable (Aran, Irish, Bayerische) Knitting Resources.

On the cable resources page, I’m aiming for sites/books that share information on cable knitting as opposed to pattern sites (although, of course, hybrids exist). If anyone has any resources to add, please leave the info in a comment.

The Rowan has spoken!

Time is flying by and the holidays are looming. Design time is at a premium these days — too much “regular” life! Home renovations can be fun but also very time consuming!

There are, however, 2 new PurpleSage designs looming in the wings –

#1) a pattern designed for the beautiful pumpkin Rowan (a DK and so soft!) that you will be able knit for that special someone in your life; it will be perfect for Valentines so look for this one in early January to give you lots of time

and

#2) a luxuriously easy-to-knit pattern using the green (plus a Blue Lagoon) Fleece Artist Somoko — something that will keep those chilly winter winds at bay!

Here’s a sneak peek at the stitch patterns. The colours are absolutely luscious and created a beautiful blend. I’ve had this yarn since the spring and have tried a number of different designs but nothing seemed right — until I tried this one! I think it’s a keeper!! I hope you agree when you see it.

Now it’s all about the pattern writing and photography.

I feel famous!

The Gaspereau Valley Fibres newsletter came out yesterday and yours truly got a mention!!! Scroll about half way down – it’s the section about the Frog Tree Meriboo yarn.

Did I mention that this was a favourite place to shop??? You literally can spend the day there is so much to see and feel and drool over

Only 3 Projects on the needles

I’m trying to play some catch-up — it was getting a little crazy for a while — I think I had 6 patterns on the go!

Well, now I’m down to 3 and have had to stop myself from starting a new one until at least one more is published. That will probably be the little pink hat!

Meet Peony Mairei
I finished writing what I think is the final draft of the pattern last night.

Now, this pattern is based on another design — the Gomphidius Violet — so since all of the numbers were worked out already for the sizing, I’m leaning toward not having this one test knit. This too is made of Green Mountain Spinnery’s Cotton Comfort — 20% organic cotton, 80% fine wool in a DK weight — very nice yarn to work with.

Celtic Jenna Rose Top
The Celtic knot centrepiece is being test knit as I write. The written pattern is in its second draft.

In the picture you can see how the initial cross-over (ecru – inside the circle) didn’t work out so I took some scrap yarn (purple) to rework just that section. (This happened in more than one spot as I worked out this design!!!) As you can see just above the circled area, my cross over/under was messed up too!!

Save the good yarn
These samples were worked in scrap acrylic yarn in a weight similar to the final yarn I was planning on using — Bernat Soy Natural Blends: 50% Soy, 50% Acrylic. When I know I’m going to be working and reworking a design area, I usually don’t use the final project yarn; I save that to knit the actual sample that will be photographed for the published pattern.

And last but not least:

Baby Irish Sweater
My original plan was to knit this as a no-seam design — nobody seems to like sewing up sweater seams! I’m still trying to work that out — the multiple sizing is providing some challenges when paired with the cabling patterns.

For the initial design process, I divided the sweater front, back and sleeves into sections (see picture) and assigned cable designs to each section.

This picture shows the second draft; my original had an extra cabling pattern included in the 2 side panels but when I actually worked out the gauge and stitch counts, there was no way I could include all of the patterns — the sweater just wasn’t wide enough!

I created charts for each of the sections — all of the cable patterns are either 2-row or 4-row repeats so the charts themselves are small. I am about to embark on writing the instructions that will look like….hmmmm…..I’m not sure what yet! I’m toying with the idea of using a garment map ( I just made that term up — I have no idea if there is such a thing or if it means something else to other people — or write it out; pictures always seem so much faster to interpret. I could easily make a garment map for each size, avoiding the confusion of reading directions for multiple sizes. We’ll just have to watch this one unfold.

Then I’ll knit the sample and see how it all works out!

Off to proof read the Peony Mairei pattern.

High Speed and Lepiota Tam Pattern

Joining the Present
Yes, folks, high speed internet has reached this little rural burg in the “mountains” of Nova Scotia (I know people with real mountains will laugh at our terminology, but you work with what you’ve got

Purchasing PurpleSage Patterns
To make things a little simpler, rather than putting patterns on this blog and my website, I will put links on this blog so you can access all of the PurpleSage knitting patterns on the PurpleSage Designs website.

Lepiota

The newest release: This sprite-ly tam looks intricate but is so easy. It is knit in the round in a DK-weight organic cotton/wool blend and features purl arcs on a knit background. No seams – only 2 ends to weave in!

The Peony colourway is perfect for lifting your spirits on a blustery day.

Adult Sizes: XS, S, M, L

The Baby/Child version of this tam is the Gomphidius Violet /Gomphidius Swath pattern (2 in 1) so it’s easy to make matching tams for you and your little one.

See more pictures and information at the PurpleSage Designs website.

New Pattern: Sneak Preview

Adult Tam Pattern
Here’s a sneak preview of the newest PupleSage pattern. It’s an adult tam in sizes XS to L and should be available through Ravelry soon. (Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Cotton Comfort 20% organic cotton, 80% wool)

New Free Tutorials
I’ve posted a few new free tutorials on the PurpleSage Designs website:
1) Sewn Bind-off in the Round
2) I-cord
3) How to save disk space by using Document Versions in MS_Word

New Magazines
The Fall2008 Vogue Knitting magazine had a huge Canadian section this time – yeah! The “local” resources and profiles were great to see!

And speaking of magazines, the Fall2008 Interweave Knits has a profile on Kate Gilbert ( a favourite of mine) — the Pearl Buck Swing Jacket (IK Winter 2005) is on my ToDo list

Frog Tree Meriboo, Backward Loop Cast-on, YAMS Update

It’s been a busy day!

Meriboo (Merino/bamboo blend)
This is such nice yarn to work with! It is soooo soft.

I’m working out an Irish sweater design for this one and here you see my first attempt at the heart I want to incorporate – I need to fix the bottom point! But I can do that using the technique I used for the mid-point in the heart. I was pretty pleased with this first effort

I should say a big thank you to DD at this point for showing me some great tricks while she helped me work out the intricacies of this celtic design for another top: Celtic Jenna Rose Top (currently hibernating but soon to be resurrected and the pattern for sale at www.Ravelry.com under the PurpleSage design pages).

The swatch at left are samples with small patch fixes for certain areas.

YAMS Update

The pattern editing is just about finished for the YAMS Baby Undershirt/Wrap Sweater. I’ll print the final pdf for proofing tomorrow and then post it to my Ravelry store. You’ll be able to find out more details and follow the links on the PurpleSage Designs website to purchase this pattern.

Website
Worked a little more on the PurpleSage Designs website today and uploaded a tutorial on the Backward Loop Cast-on. Most of the PurpleSage patterns are up as well as many of the organizational tips from the blog and a couple of tutorials. The web layout makes it a little easier to find specific items.

That’s it for me. Good night

Gaspereau Valley Fibres Visit: Stash Details

I literally spent almost 2 hours browsing, touching, oohing (lots of that), aaahing and chatting with Brenda yesterday — such a pleasure!

Here is my loot! Well, half — some found it’s way to DD’s on the way home

1) The Green Mountain Spinnery Cotton Comfort (colour: peony) [at the bottom of the picture]: This is destined for a new incarnation of the Gomphidius Violet Baby Mushroom Cap tam. It is a wonderful yarn to work with — wool / organic cotton blend. The more you frog the yarn the softer it gets! It’s great for designing.

2) The Frog Tree Yarns Meriboo (colour 000)[white/offwhite at right in picture]: Frog Tree is new to me and I was happy to learn that it is a Fair Trade company working with cooperatives in Peru. The Meriboo is a blend of Merino and Bamboo and is oooooooohhh sooooooo soft! I see a baby sweater in those skeins! A swatch is already made, gauge calculated, and many scribbles of the prospective design are staring at me But first I have to finish some pattern writing on the YAMS Baby Undershirt so that the pattern can be posted on the website and Ravelry.

3) The beautiful pale green hand-painted yarn [top middle] is Fleece Artist Somoko. I have a few other colours in my stash and this skein will blend beautifully with the Blue Lagoon and Fruit Punch skeins.

4) The russet yarn (colour 040) [left side of picture] is Rowan Pure Wool DK and although it reminds me of fall (no, no, noooo! — summer has been way too short so far!!!!) it does have a very nice comfy feeling about it and is very soft.

Website update:
I am working away at it — even bought a second hand book on web design to add to my limited html knowledge so that I can hopefully tweak some of the annoying things that sometimes happen (like the tables on the webpage resizing themselves and refusing to be the size I want.)

Well, my wool is calling me………………