the end of 2016

It’s been a weird year, hasn’t it? Nearly done, and me not writing here for months! I’m sure I can’t remember half the things that happened, but here’s my attempt at catching up.

After our wedding we had to move house, as the landlord of the apartment I’d lived in for 5 years kicked us out in order to renovate. It sucked, but we managed to (eventually) find a new little house that’s pretty darn awesome. Three bedrooms (so we each get an office with a door!), gas stove, dishwasher, washer/dryer, sunroom, backyard, kitchen with actual counter space and outlets – it’s great! We moved less than a month after the wedding, so that was crazy. Of course, there’s still loads to do in terms of getting settled in, but it’s always a work in progress. At least with a trip to Ikea last week we finally have all the window coverings up!

Our new place is on the other side of town from where we used to live, so I left my fabric store job after three months. It was a pretty short stint, but overall an interesting learning experience. I met some pretty awesome people and picked up just a little bit of fabric. I don’t miss the job, but it was probably a good kick in the butt to take stock of what I actually want to do with my working life.

In early December I went on a little trip to the east coast to visit our Megan in New Brunswick. It was cold, but clear, and we knit, ate, and gabbed as much as we possibly could in a weekend. We even dyed some yarn!

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For Christmas, we got a tiny live tree in a pot, and I made so much candy and cookies. And a yule log! We actually spent Christmas together for the first time (we’d been going up to our parents’ separately), and had dinner at my parents’ house on Christmas Day and at the farm after Boxing Day.

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On the designing front, I didn’t self-publish as much this year as I would have liked, but I did get out quite a few patterns with other publishers. (See and buy them all on my Ravelry designer page.)

SIX new patterns from Swans Island:

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Four from Harrisville Designs:

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Three from I Like Knitting magazine:

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Plus a few more here and there, including this one newly released from Diamond Yarn in their yummy Regal Alpaca, Waving Ribs Cardigan.

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It was a busy year for me! I have lots of design and editing work lined up and a nice new studio to organize, and I definitely want to get back to blogging more regularly. I would also love to do some personal crafting, knitting or otherwise.

2016 had some huge ups (getting married!) and downs, and here at the end of it I’m pretty worried about the state of the world, especially for my American friends. But I’m still excited to leave 2016 behind and see what happens in 2017. All we can do is move forward, right?

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Hug your friends and loved ones, and have a strong, safe, and happy new year!

new skeins

I forgot to share my purchases from Verb in Oakland! One of the “reasons” I “had” to buy stuff was to pay Denny for her excellent sample knitting.

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She got some fancy yarn…

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And some fancy fabric! Khadi cotton and cotton grown by Sally Fox! I’m pretty sure Denny’s already knit and sewn up all this stuff by now ;)

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I got just a yard of this wide naturally-dyed linen – I think it’ll be enough for a longish sleeveless top. And a little yarn, of course! I also picked up Sonya Phillips’ Dress No 3 pattern, since she had picked us up from the hotel to go to Verb it seemed like the right thing to do.

More new skeins, a few that I spun up in July. It’s a good thing I wasn’t reeeeally doing the Tour de Fleece because this is all I managed.

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Top: Polwarth in Flintstoner from Indigodragonfly
Middle: BFL-silk in a colour way I can’t remember, also from Indigodragonfly
Bottom: Polwarth/silk in Reverberate (OOAK) from Pigeonroof Studios

For all of these, I split the top lengthwise down the middle and spun each half onto a separate bobbin, because mine don’t quite hold a full 4oz. Then once all the singles were done, I used the jumbo plying head on my Lendrum to chain-ply them, joining the two bobbins’ worth and hopefully keeping the colours nicely intact.

I’m planning to put up some handspun for sale soon so keep an eye out if you’re interested!

Snowy April

Apparently April has been the snowiest month of this winter, here in TO! I just saw some hail falling, too. Yeeesh.

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I’ve been working on an XL version of my Milkweed Shawl pattern – which originally came out in 2008. That’s seriously an AGE in digital knitting patterns! It needs some new photos and layout to freshen it up, and I’ve been meaning to do a larger version for years. I’m actually striping 2 different colourways of Cashmerino 20 from Sweet Fiber Yarns – I had bought 2 different ones by accident, but they look great together and blend really nicely. I’m at the point now where I’m starting to worry about running out of yarn…here’s hoping I don’t have to rip back again.

WGmerinosilk

I hadn’t spun in weeks, but got back to the wheel this past weekend. This 50/50 merino/silk from Woolgatherings on Etsy is so soft, and the colours are just gorgeous. I split the top vertically into 2 pieces and am spinning each one separately, then I’ll chain ply to preserve the colours. I really wanted this yarn to be a heavier than my “default” thickness (which is pretty thin), so I’m aiming for about a worsted-weight 3 ply.

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Despite all the other work I’ve got going (and the fact that I have only 2 hands, dammit) I couldn’t resist winding this awesome yarn from Caterpillar Green in Vancouver, in Blue Light. I wind a lot of yarn by hand these days because I can’t be arsed to set up the swift and ball winder, but it was worth it to see how this yarn stripes up! It’s designed to stripe nicely for top-down, triangular shawls, but of course I’m thinking of a light spring cardigan. At a whopping 600 yards, this skein might just be enough for a little topper. Stay tuned…

jamcookies

This week’s cookie is Jam Thumbprints from Love and Olive Oil, spurred on by the several half-full jars of homemade jam in the fridge! They’re filled with raspberry, blueberry, and meyer lemon marmalade. They’re pretty, tender, and way too easy to eat!

Here’s hoping Spring is actually spring-ing where you are.