It has been pointed out to me….

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Rayna

That I really should pay more attention to my blog. I currently hit it in fits and starts…partly because I get busy and have little time to post, partly because the only computer at home is my husband’s and he’s a student, and partly because I feel like my pics are so bad that I have no right to be putting them anywhere.

It’s been a busy autumn…where by busy I mean that I spent a lot of time knitting. Not sure why I don’t feel like I have the FOs to show for it. I am knitting a lot of socks that I am giving away, which is completely new for me. More on that later. I have completed 12 pairs of socks this year, which upon counting and discovering that, I will admit to being a touch shocked. One of those pairs was a test/sample knit for Kate Atherley, over at Wise Hilda Knits, one of my favourite sock designers. Those need to be their own FO post.

Another thing I have put some time into and have hit the 50% point on is the scarf I mentioned in October. It’s as awesome as I thought it would be and frankly, if I wasn’t trying to finish up a few things before Christmas, it would be done by now.

Zigzag Wanderer in Stillwater

I cannot wait for this to be done!!

This past weekend I spent a huge amount of time either brunching or hanging out in yarn shops. (What? Both are completely valid lifestyle choices.) Lovely visits to Eweknit and The Purple Purl with my friend Shireen netted both Christmas gifts for others and belated birthday gifts for me.

Speaking of Christmas gifts, I am looking forward to Christmas in Newfoundland, which we do every second year. We won’t be decorating or anything, as hubby is in his very last set of final exams and I really can’t be bothering him to help me do things right now. As a result, to put me somewhat in the spirit, I have been trying to find a good gingerbread recipe. Last night’s was a spectacular failure (my fault, not the recipe’s!) and a teensy bit too gingery for me, I think. Half a cup of real ginger and no cinnamon or cloves wasn’t really the taste I was after. So my search continues. Got one to share?

Etsy Holiday Sale

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Rayna

Etsy Holiday Sale

If you love jewelry and you want to give handmade this Christmas…check this out!!

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Rayna

A couple of months ago, my amazingly talented friend Shireen, over at The Blue Brick gave me a stunning gift: a multi-stranded bracelet she had crafted from Swarovski crystals, inspired by her trip to St. John’s, Newfoundland, or more specifically Quidi Vidi Lake.

Photo credit: Shireen X. Nadir of The Blue Brick

I fell in love with the piece the moment I saw her blog post about it, but as an ex-pat Newfoundlander, I was beyond touched when she gifted me with such beautiful, tangible reminder of home.

I have been wearing the bracelet with jeans and a brown blazer since I got it…but I felt there was something else needed to tie the outfit together. I remembered a skein of yarn I saw on last year’s TTC Knitalong; it was a skein of Malabrigo Sock in a colourway called “Playa”, that was primarily navy blue and chocolate brown. So I headed downtown this week to see if I could find it.

While hanging out at the Purple Purl on Tuesday, I ran across a braid of SweetGeorgia spinning fibre in a colourway called “Stillwater” that looked like it would fit the bill and asked the ladies there whether they had a skein of fingering weight yarn in the same colourway. Amazingly enough, they had a single skein of Cashluxe Fine (20% cashmere….YUM!) in the exact same colourway, perfect for a pretty scarf.

A perfect match, no?

So, I have the skein and have chosen what I think is an awesome scarf pattern, one that I have been in love with for about a year, and that I don’t think will fight with the variegation of this awesome colourway. Now if only I didn’t have so many other things I need to finish first, because I am just itching to grab a needle and cast on!

FO of a different sort

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Rayna

Remember this from yesterday?

Handpainted Fingering Weight

This was what it looked like after “cooking” and washing:

And here is the picture I got from Shireen last night:

The Finished Product!

While I may not exactly be giving indigodragonfly or Tanis Fiber Arts a run for their money anytime soon, I am fairly pleased with it over all. Looking forward to actually having it in my hot little hands 🙂

Now, to find the right shawl/scarf pattern for it.

Back From The Dead

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Rayna

My blog…not me. (Although it seems funny that I am bringing my blog back from the dead to talk about dyeing…)

I have been conspicuously absent from the blogosphere these days. Summer always takes the good right out of me, and even robs me of my fibre arts karma. My wheel has been covered for months and my knitting comes in fits and starts. I spend far more time surfing Ravelry and dreaming of what I will make than I do actually making anything. However, when a dear friend says, “We should get together and try our hand at dyeing some yarn”, that’s hard to resist.

So, yesterday my friend Shireen (from over at The Blue Brick) hosted me and our friend/my spinning teacher Leslie (from Leslie Ordal Fibre Arts) for a day of fingerpainting for adults, aka yarn and fibre dyeing. Shireen picked up some undyed yarn and clothing dye; Leslie and I grabbed some bags of undyed fibre from stash and some food colouring and we converged on Shireen’s tidy little downtown condo and, well, pretty much totaled it.

We started out with Kool-Aid and the small sport weight skeins first, to try and get a feel for what we were doing. Not sure if I, as the designated dye blend diva of the day, managed to make them a bit diluted, or if this is the nature of Kool-Aid, but the colours did seem somewhat muted.

Shireen’s Kool-Aid dyed Cascades 200 Sport weight

We eventually moved into Rit and worsted weight yarn, leaving our precious skeins of fingering weight merino for last, when we felt we had a better handle on what we were doing. I even painted some smaller quantities of fibre to get a grasp on how things might look before trying yarn.

Getting ready for a teal/royal blue/purple paint of my worsted.

When we did get to the fingering weight, I was still enamoured with the handpainting process; Shireen and Leslie opted for some immersion/kettle dyeing with a natural dye kit Shireen had picked up at a fibre fair a while back.

I had a specific idea in my head for a red/orange/yellow variegated yarn, so I set to work handpainting my skein with autumnal colours, while the ladies prepped pots for their immersion dyes.

Handpainted Fingering Weight

The immersion dyes both turned out absolutely beautifully (I may or may not have even threatened to steal Shireen’s navy blue skein), and both will be perfect for lace because while they are variegated, they are both beautifully tonal.

Shireen's navy blue and Leslie's forest green fingering weight skeins

Shireen’s navy blue fingering weight skein and Leslie’s forest green fibre

Luckily, there is enough navy dye left for me to do one of my own next time. And we have decreed there will definitely be a next time, that will include expanding our materials list to include acid dyes. I can’t wait!

All photos in this post taken by and courtesy of Shireen Nadir.