An Announcement, A Free Pattern and A Contest!!

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Rayna

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For the past year or so, I have been steadily increasing my creative endeavours. I have started dyeing my own yarn and fibre, albeit at this point in a mostly experimental fashion. I have resumed spinning on my Lendrum wheel and produced some very happy-making results. I have also started writing knitting patterns. My first was a take on an ankle sock for (and named after) my friend Shireen, and my second is a simple textured sock for my husband, Chase. My third, another sock pattern which is currently being test knit, is my first foray into designing with cables. I have several more designs swimming about in my head, and those will come very soon, I hope.

While writing up the second pattern, Shireen and I talked about whether or not I wanted to stay with crystaldiva, (a name inadvertently given to me almost a decade ago by a client in Florida) or whether I wanted to rebrand to something that had a bit more meaning to me overall.

As most of you know, I am an ex-pat Newfoundlander, and if I am to be truthful, even after 14 years in the Toronto area, my heart still really belongs near the sea. In fact, I grew up some 500 metres from the Atlantic in a tiny town near the capital city of St. John’s, where the town crest boasted “First To See The Sun”.

So today, I am excited to welcome you to First Light Handcrafts!

I am thrilled that the new name and the new look reflect my east coast heritage. Even the iceberg that graces the top of my new blog is courtesy of my dad, Jerry, who is an amazing photographer of Newfoundland scenery. (Go check out his artistry at his Pbase site!)

In honour of my rebranding, today I am releasing the sock pattern created for my husband. It’s called “Petty Harbour”, after another of our favourite towns in the St. John’s area, and it looks great in solid, semi-solid or variegated yarns.

It’s available for free here on Ravelry.

I am also holding a contest – a giveaway of a lovely skein of Sundara Sock yarn in a blue called “Wistful Longing” (anyone sensing a theme here?).

To enter, leave me a comment. Tell me what you would do with the yarn, or what yarn you’d knit Petty Harbour from…or just say hi! If you re-tweet or share this post, leave me a comment telling me that too, and I’ll enter your name more than once! As my friend Carla says…stack the deck in your favour! Contest closes on Friday the 19th. Just make sure that I have some way of contacting you to get your mailing address.

I hope you’ll stick around; it’s shaping up to be a busy time!

So much going on…

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Rayna

And so little I can really show or write about 🙂

I have a freebie sock design completed, photographed and laid out, and being test knit as we speak. A second design has been drafted and test knitters are all lined up! A few more designs are spinning about in my head and will have to wait just a little longer.

While all this is ongoing, most regular knitting has been suspended with the exception of my indigodragonfly No Purl Monkeys. These things really just knit themselves!

Sock 1 complete!

I am actually ready to start the heel flap on Sock #2 and plan to have these done soon so they will be ready for when the weather turns. Until today’s 30 degree high, there are many that might have argued that had already happened, but I digress.

I have also done little to no spinning. That has to be remedied soon so as not to lose the consistency I have gained. Plus I really miss the soothing, zen feeling that it brings.

What have you been doing now that autumn is just around the corner?

Exciting Times!

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Rayna

These past few months, my creative brain has been in overdrive. I credit some of that to hanging out with the multi-talented Shireen. Spend a few evenings creating new things with her, and you start dreaming of what else you can accomplish.

In the past twelve months, just from a fibre standpoint, I have dyed some of my own yarn and fibre. We started off with just experimenting with fabric dye, but since then I have played with acid dyes and have created some spin-able and knit-able pieces. And I sincerely doubt I am done yet.

I have picked up spinning again and gotten surprisingly good at it, if my spinning teacher, Leslie is to be believed (and I believe she is). In fact, she even thinks a couple of my skeins from Tour de Fleece should be entered in competition. Took a while for my ego to come down off that one, let me tell you!

I have gotten a loom and done a limited amount of weaving. That is the activity that logistically is hardest to do just anywhere due to the need for a prop for the loom, so it tends to get ignored when I am deciding what craft to pursue in the evenings.

I have also self-published my first sock pattern. Admittedly, it started out as a tool to help Shireen knit her own socks, but it was still a fun exercise and it encouraged me to keep going and create more designs.

All this is in addition to the (obviously decreased) knitting that I have been doing. Since both of my parents have jumped on the “we love hand knit socks” bandwagon, and my husband has also decided that hand knit socks are something he was missing out on, socks have been practically the only things I have actually been working on. In fact, I just finished my first pair for hubby and he loves them! (More on that and my second pattern release soon!)

I have had several other patterns floating around in my head, based on somewhat of a theme; two of those have made it onto needles and one of those two is a bit behind schedule, but picking up again now. I am enthused about that one for a number of reasons, none of which I can really talk about at the moment.

All that being said, changes are coming, and I won’t lie; I am pretty excited about them!