Tickled

The title of this post pretty much sums up how I felt when Jacque Landry emailed saying she had some cuteness to share and off to her blog I went.  When I got there, what did I see?  This absolutely adorable photo!  Seems Jacque’s DD couldn’t get enough of the Zen Yarn Garden yarn I had sent her!  How darn cute is that??!!  I can’t think of a better endorsement for this yarn than a darling little one not being able to keep her hands off of it!

If you want to see more pictures and read more about the story, please visit Jacque’s blog!  She has quite a few more pictures of her DD with the yarn that are sure to make you say Jacque definitely has a knitter-in-training in the works!

With Jacque’s permission to use this photo of her DD, I thought there would be no better way than to announce that Jacque is working on a new design using our brand new Gemilicious worsted yarns!  Watch for it in the coming months! 

Jacque specializes in designs that are “classic glamour for the girl next door” and I can’t wait for this project to come together!  We’ve been secretly working on it behind the scenes and if you care to, please visit Jacque’s site and browse through her existing patterns - she has a lot of really wonderful designs to choose from!

Bunny!

It’s gotta be Spring!  I found this cute little guy/girl between our house and the neighbour’s and before s/he hopped away, I had to grab a photo and of course, as soon as I got too close, off s/he went!  What a little cute pie.  I hate doing yard work but this little guy made it all worth it today!

Awwwwwwwwwwwww….so cute!  DH said this is the same little guy that left footprints in our yard during the winter which temporarily freaked us out until we realized it must be a bunny…LOL  What a lovely coat…must be ultra-soft!

Robyn’s Gold & Athena

A couple of months ago, when Robyn and I got together to come up with an exclusive colourway for her April sock club, I was excited to help her with designing something unique for her clubbers.  I tossed a lot about a colourway and we both landed on developing something that would be reminiscent of her colours in her store welcome page (particularly the colours of the robin) and that’s when the Robyn’s Gold colourway was born! 

Then a skein went off to Michelle to design a sock pattern and I patiently waited to see how the colourway was going to knit up into a pattern.  Let me tell ya - it’s never easy to sit back and wait for a pattern to be developed - I prefer to see the colourway knit up immediately so I can see if it works or not for the pattern…LOL  Michelle really didn’t disappoint with her Athena pattern either - what a wonderful pattern to compliment the colourway! 

I was so pleased and it was wonderful to work with Robyn and Michelle on this project.  I hope everyone who did get the package is enjoying the pattern and yarn!

Busy Bee

Ya, that’d be me! I have been so busy lately but guess what? I’m taking a much-needed break next week! Phew, I can’t wait! I love dyeing yarn but sometimes, you just need a bit of time to recharge and refocus. Downtime is usually when ideas strike for me so I’m anxious to get away for that reason too.

In the meantime, my store website is getting overhauled which I’m really excited about! I’ve seen mock-ups already and I’m so pleased! The store will be customized and hopefully will make for an easier shopping experience for everyone too. Having a professional work on it means I will also stop trying to change it all the time - it’s a horrible habit when you do all the website stuff yourself - you just always want to change it! This way, I can relax and settle into a theme/look that is being developed and not worry about it! It leaves more time for the yarn and for adding new ideas to my product lines which is always good!

So in the meantime, a photo of yarns that I’ve been working on lately and if you want to see more, come on over and visit my Flickr album - there’s lots of brand new shiny yarn colours in there! 

Everyone have a wonderful week while I’m away!

Gemilicious Worsted

We are really excited to be releasing new yarn weights in the store in the coming months and this is a little teaser of our new worsted line that will be released with an ultra-fabulous project that’s going to be gorgeous!  I can’t tell you what it will be yet but stay tuned - it will surely not disappoint!  We are in the development stages right now but I’m super excited to expand my offerings in handpainted yarns to include worsted weight.  We have decided to use Louet Gems Merino as our base yarn for all our worsted weight yarns.  Why?  Because it’s a high quality, well-respected yarn and for the projects we have in mind for this yarn, only the best will do!  It dyes up magnificently with a bit of a sheen to it that’s gorgeous!  Stay tuned for more details…they will unfold in the coming months with a few other surprises on the horizon! 

In case you’re wondering - this semi-solid colourway is called “Rubies” which will be released with the project (along with a few other semi-solid colourways) once our project is complete and ready to go!  More to come!

Robyn’s Nest April Sock Club

I’m pleased to announce that Robyn of Robynsnest.ca asked me to help with dyeing some yarn for her April 2008 Sock Club kit!  We came up with a really cool colourway that is exclusive to Robyn’s store and if you’re interested, hop on over and take a look.  Michelle of Not An Artist is writing the pattern for the kit and from what I hear, it’s gorgeous!  Drop on over and support a fellow Canadian - this kit is entirely Made in Canada with me dyeing the yarn, Michelle writing the pattern and Robyn making matching stitch markers!  Go Canada Go! 

Single Sock Bowl

I do a lot of single sock knitting!  Why?  Because I am my own test knitter - once one colourway is knit up, I’m anxious to see how the next will knit up so as soon as one sock is done, I’m onto another colourway.  So instead of letting one sock sit in my knitting bag, I decided to put them on display!  How cool is this?  Once this bowl is filled up, I will move onto another!  This one will sit in the middle of my dining room table (it has a lid too) and for anyone who decides to peak inside, they are in for a sock treat!  I love this idea…makes me feel better about all these single socks I have!

Socktopia Lupus Fundraiser

In conjunction with Socktopia, I’m pleased to announce a fundraiser currently being held for the Lupus Foundation of America.  For every yarn sold, $5 will be donated to the Lupus Foundation. 

For those of you who knew Momma Monkey (Gigi Silva) online, she was the founder of Socktopia and was the creative spirit behind all the fabulous sock patterns she wrote and offered for free.  Not long ago Gigi lost her battle with Lupus so in her memory, I have come up with a commemorative colourway in her name - purple being the colour of Lupus awareness and orange being Gigi’s favourite colour.  It was such a sad day when we lost such a creative person from our knitting community and I’m happy to help in anyway I can.  Hopefully the dollars donated to Lupus research will help those who currently have Lupus win their battle against this disease so if you can donate, please do so and thank you for your generosity!

UPDATE:  March 12, 2008 - I’m really pleased to let everyone know that all the yarn has now been sold and I have been able to donate $150 to the Lupus Foundation in the name of all the generous knitters who didn’t hesitate to show their support!  If you’d like to read the letter I received from the Foundation, please click here.  I’m beyond touched by everyone’s support and although I’m really sad that Gigi left us too soon, you guys just amaze me!  I can’t wait to see everyone’s creations and hopefully you will remember Gigi with every stitch of your yarn!  I think I’ll go and cry a little…you guys are just so awesome!  Thank you for a wonderful end to the day.

I Love Trades!

Why do I love trades so much?  Because I always feel like I’m the winner each time I do them!  Look at this fabulous boxy bag I just got from my fellow SnBer Cathy from ZigZagStitches!  Her bags are adorable, well-made and hold your project with lots of room left over!  Not only that, she has some wonderful fabrics to choose from and hey, I’d love it if you went and supported one of my local girls from my SnB!  I am so loving our meetings!  When I was in Toronto I just never had the time for any SnB meetings but now that I’ve been to two in my local area, I am hooked!  How fun it is to talk knitting and ooh and ahh over everyone’s projects!  I love it!  Life has been busy and I just haven’t had the chance to blog much but I had to tell you all about Cathy’s bags - go get one - you will not be disappointed!!

Pink Party!

Remember that big pile of yarn I had a contest to guess how many for?  Well, here’s the colour…that’s a lot of pink eh?  This order was a butt kicker but now everything seems not so bad since…LOL!  I loved working on it even if it was very labour intensive.  I swear sometimes I had no idea just how physically labourious yarn dyeing can be but when you have to create a pile like this, oh yes, it does test your resolve!  For those handpainters out there that produce orders twice the size of this, bless you!  I can’t see doing anything bigger than this without help though…all this by myself folks!  Phew but doesn’t it look pretty?  Darn colours get me everytime especially after an exhausting order like this that really make me wonder if I should pack it in or not.  Ahhhhhh, colour!!