Orange you glad I didn't say Sparkling?

I have made an excutive decision. I've decided to devote the following year to an exploration of sparkling wine. I have the privilge of working in the wine industry and for a winery that makes amazing sparkling wine but I want to go deep. My plan is to roam with my taste buds seeking out sparkling wines from all over the world to taste and research. Rather than keeping my notes in some dusty journal - I thought I'd document them here. Of course, the yarn pairings will be part of it so this could take some interesting turns.

I thought I would start with one of the classics...Veuve Clicquot. This is one of the oldest Champagne houses started around the time of the French Revolution. It was built to promenence by a woman named Barbe-Nicole Clicquot - also known as "The Widow Clicquot" (Veuve means widow in French). Generally, using the word widow in the name of a product isn't adivised unless you're marketing black veils or Kleenex. This Champagne is made in the traditional method meaning the second fermentation occurs in the bottle. It has amazing notes of baked apple, warm bread and a crisp finish. I had my glass with pear slices and Cheddar Cheese.

As a marketer, I've long envied the way Veuve Clicquot is so closely aligned with the distictive colour of yellow/orange. The colour was first used on the bottle labels in the late 1800's to make it easier to see in the dark cellars. For those keeping score, Pantone 137C is its closest match.

I happened to visit Julie at the Needle Emporium yesterday and on the 45 min drive to her store, I was listening the "The Widow Clicquot" audiobook. If you love history and wine - I highly recommend it.

With orange on the brain and a desire to make this lovely new design (Ravelry link) by Julia Trice called Reverie; I was drawn to the new yarn line Julie carries called Mrs. Crosby. The line has a beautiful sport weight yarn called Hat Box (merino, silk, cashmere) with a shade of orangy/yellow that's Veuviliciously amazing. It's called Spicy Habanero.

Sparkling wine is alive, complex and like Post It Notes and Penicillin, the result of a mistake that actually turned into something beautiful. If that isn't a metaphor for knitting, I don't know what is.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Big Schlep

This past autumn was a whirlwind of finishing. September presented our ususal 5 Counties guild competition. We were assigned a piece of art for our inspiration. We were assigned this tea pot.

Our guild thought the tea pot was quite whimsical so we chose an Alice in Wonderland theme. Combining the colours of the tea pot with the Alice theme - I decided to make a twill scarf from the cover of the book Twill Thrills. It featured a heart design with snowflakes in between. The original design was black and red but I took the blue and pink from the tea pot to create my scarf.

The lovely Jane Stafford recommended this fine silk 30/2 and the colours Blue Suede shoes (second from right) and Passion Fruit (far right pink).

The yarn is 10% silk and it was tricky to warp but boy does the shuttle fly on the smooth silk and does the pattern ever glow!

Here is a glamour shot my husband took of the scarf with his Nikon D7000 and one of me wearing it taken with my iPhone. I love wearing it and as always learned a lot about weaving and about my own creative process. Sometimes a few parameters make for some pretty great results and that's whaat competitions like this teach us.

 

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Princess meet Pumpkin

It's hard to believe that 8 glorious days have come and gone. This trip has been just what the doctor ordered. For different reasons, my father and I are in a very similar place emotionally. We are both busy taking care of others and get very little time to just chill and do what we want to do. For the last week - it's just been the two of us. We've sometimes gone for hours without speaking. We've talked politics, family and taken long walks and sipped wine. The weather has been glorious. And now; I have to get up at 3:30 am to catch a plane back to Toronto. On the up side - I'll adjust back to Ontario time quickly.

The other thing we did was shop. Dad was very generous in taking me to my favourite fibre haunts. The first stop was to see Jane Stafford on Salt Spring Island. Her weaving retreats are amazing. I've taken her pushing the boundaries of plain weave and would love to take the one on colour theory. I picked up some cones of her organic cotton to make dish towels. These are some of the happiest colours I've ever seen and Jane kindly wrote out the warping order for her dish towels.

In Nanaimo at Ewe Knit, I bought a skein of Shepherd Sock by Lorna's Laces. This is a beautiful tonal yarn in greens called Skyway. I keep thinking it's called "Skyfall" instead so I think I'll rename it. It's somewhat manly so I'm hoping to make a pair of socks for dad (shhhhhh).

Lastly, I stopped in the Loom yarn store in Duncan BC. I snagged 17 balls of the recently, dearly departed Rowan Denim. I've always coveted the Mary cardigan from the original Rowan Denim book. It's apparently a nightmare of a pattern with lots of errors and one size only but it's gorgeous and this shade of blue is stunning.

We'll see if I can keep up the blogging when I get home. The bloggin app helps - just gotta make the time.

 

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Blue Skies

I can't quite believe that it's now day 6 of my vacation. Somewhere around 9:23 Monday night I managed to begin to decompress and detach. Not checking work e mails on my iPhone helps. I can't really be that important.

Royale by Glenna C is blossoming into a beautiful sweater. I'm working with an Aran weight yarn by Indigodragonfly in the colourway "Then Buffy Staked Edward...The end.". It's a lovely, smoky teal with kisses of a purple veil. I'm alternating skeins to ensure an even distribution of the variegation. This is a semi-solid shade but I

like to ensure that pooling is mitigated by alternating skeins. This project and I had a few false starts. It was totally me. The pattern is just fine - very well written. I just kept losing my focus when I cast on. First I dropped a stitch and then tried to pick it up and didn't like it. Then I used the wrong size needles for the ribbing. Next I twisted the join and didn't notice for several rounds. I think I made every mistake twice and the sixth time I cast on seemed to be a charm. I'm zipping along and all seems fine. The twisted stitches are lovely and I can't wait to finish it. I had a chance to try on Glenna's sample a couple of years ago at Rhinebeck. It's one sexy sweater!Every morning I've taken to trekking down to the waterfront near where dad lives. The incline is about 80 degrees so walking back up offers a nice workout. This morning I decided to go and sit by the water and listen to my favourite knitting podcast Knit 1 Geek 2 whilst working on Royale. Knit 1 Geek 2 is hosted by a couple of my knit night buddies Karen and Maggie. If you haven't listened to it yet - go for it. You'll enjoy it I promise.

I took a few glamour shots of Royale by the ocean. I'm taking advantage of this time to play with my camera a bit more. I have a D3100 by Nikon. It's more camera than I need right now but I'm hoping to grow into it. I took this shot of this lovely orange flower because I liked the way it looked next to the rocks. I'm playing with depth of field too - hence the slightly out of focus background. Here is Royale beside the orange flowers just to tie it all together.

I ended up sitting by the water for a couple of hours. I say it was the fabulous view, podcast and knitting project but truth be told - I was not looking forward to the walk back up.

 

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Gone Fishing

 

I'm a bad,bad blogger...but then you knew that already. Life continues to roll at warp speed. I fall down the rabbit hole at regular intervals. I work - long hours and have a busy family life. My fibrey pursuits often take a back seat to duty (sigh).

Currently, however- I'm off the grid. I've flown to Vancouver Island for a week to hang out with dad and sleep and knit. Dad prodded me earlier today to blog more so as I sit on a sunny coffee house patio it occurs to me that this might be a bloggable moment. Here is my sock. Yes...you read that right. A. Sock. I've only ever finished one pair and I gifted those when I needed a last minute present. I believe that the holy trinity of pattern, needles and yarn make for a successful finish. If the pattern is too boring or too complicated- other things will attract me. I think I've found the right combo. Here I have Turtle Purl sock yarn in the Purple Purl anniversary colourway. The needles are the lovely Signature double points (expensive but worth it) and the pattern is the Vanilla Latte sock by Virginia-Rose Jeanes.

Blissfully alone with the sunshine, my latte and my knitting. Life's good.

 

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La Kane

I used to wear a lot of red in the eighties. I guess it was the Nancy Reagan effect. I've settled into a nice easy world of blues and greens in recent years so when I saw Derica Kane by Chic Knits...I was surprised to realize I wanted it. In red.

I found a lovely rose red in Tosh DK in a shade called Byzantine at the Needle Emporium. This is my first Chic Knits pattern but it certainly won't be my last. It's just interesting enough to keep your attention yet repetitive enough to take along. I enjoyed every stitch of it.

I bought some lovely Michael and Sheila Ernst buttons at Rhinebeck last year which truly make the sweater extra special.

This was my Rhinebeck sweater this year ( more on that trip to come soon) and it was fun to show the Ernsts their buttons on the sweater.

I'm having a blast wearing it with my red Fluevog boots. They are the Operetta Hjordis from last year.

I'm quite pleased with the number of FOs under my belt this year. Could a new sense of focus and dare I say project monogamy be afoot?

 

Nah. Life's too short for an equally short queue.

 

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Soaked

And now for something completely different.

Our house is 23 years old. I seems like yesterday that we stood in the builder's showroom choosing these cabinets and fixtures. Everything has been looking tired lately so it seemed like the right time to renovate and update the bathroom.

I envisioned shifting from the neutral earth tones we have here towards a rich, luxurious and dramatic colour palette.

I found a grey floor that I loved and from there pulled in subway tile and mosaic tile in natural stone tones of grey, burnt red, wheat and clear glass.

The tub , sink and too are white ( bye, bye almond tub and sink) so the contrast will be dramatic.

Day one, the tub and tile came out and the new tub was set in. We're coming up to one full week without the tub but showing at the health club has worked for all of us so far.

Hopefully, tomorrow it'll be done!

 

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On a Roll

I have another finished object! My shawl for our 5 Counties Guild challenge came off of the loom one week before the event.

I've used a fine neutral warp with Classic Elite lace weight and my merino/ silk hand spun for the weft. The pattern is overshot the blooming leaf pattern.

This was a challenging project as the warp was very fine and sticky. I really struggled with it. In the end, the weight was perfect and the shawl draped perfectly. The displays looked beautiful as each guild was asked to choose an historical Time period to use as inspiration. Art Deco, the Arts and Crafts Movement were two time periods honored.

Our Guild chose 1812 to nod to the bicentennial of the war. The display looked great- my co-chair designed the display.

Our keynote speaker was Judith Bowden, an amazing designer for the Shaw festival's production of My Fair Lady last year. She was kind enough to bing a few costumes for us to see. She shared with us her creative process. I immediately wanted to dust off my sewing machine.

 

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A Special Delivery

The Willie sweater is done and has been presented to the expectant mom.

I love the little ear flap, the way the graphic wraps around the body. A YouTube video showed me how do a chain stitch for the collar.

I highly recommend this pattern. It's fast, cute and fun to knit. I can't quite believe that I got it done before the baby arrived. It feels good o have an FO...now onto my project for the 5 Counties weaving/ spinning competition this weekend.

 

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Chunky yarn...small recipient

I rarely knit for others because most people just don't "get" the effort and care that goes into knitting something. I also often can't finish things quickly due to my work schedule and babies do make their appearances eventually and grow quickly. However, I know a young lady who is expecting a baby soon and she " gets" it. I've been wanting to make the Willie cardigan by Pamela Wynne for some time now so when I was in BC I grabbed the yarn and cast on.

It's been great knit night and take-along knitting. I love its Parisienne vibe. The Intarsia dog wraps around the body with an ear flap and embroidered chain for its neck still to come. The yarn is Patons Shetland Chunky super wash.

I think a jaunty beret would finish the ensemble nicely so I'll be looking for a pattern for that next.

 

 

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La Kane

Well, hello again!

My absence fom blogging is largely due to my technological ineptness. You see- I started blogging from my iPad and then had trouble posting. This is my attempt at getting back in the game as it were.

I'm knitting, weaving, spinning and sipping great wine. My front- burner project is Derica Kane by Bonne Marie Burns. Here's Judy modeling the body. I've since finished th sleeves and am working on the yoke.

The yarn is Tosh DK in the Byzantine colour way. I love the design and the yarn is delicious to work with.

I'm sipping lots of Trius Red 2010 these days. The 2012 harvest has just begun and bodes to be another amazing one. I guess rich, bold reds are in my glass and on my needles.

 

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Toot,toot, tootsie hello.

 I bought some Toots LeBlanc merino/angora at Madrona fiber festival last year.  Given the length of my knitting queue, I figured that it stood a better chance of becoming an FO as a woven object.  I was supposed to create something for a competition ( eventually cancelled) using 3 colours from the OHS tartan.  I chose azure, brown and white.  I had to overdye the fawn shade with the azure and it came out the perfect shade.

In my zeal to get the warp on the loom, I neglected to tie off the crosses and ended up with a tangled mess.  Had it not been Toots LeBlanc, I might have given up.  I took a few weeks to slowly sort the threads and to put them in place.  The warp is brown and white, the weft blue and white.  The pin wheel design is fun and beautiful.  I got the pattern from the Handwoven best of scarves collection.

The cloth is beautiful, the yarn bloomed perfectly.  

Colour me happy.

 

Blankie

I'm trying a new blogging app so we'll see how it goes.  This is the baby Shane Blanket from Tanis Fiber Arts.  

It's a fun knit.

Trust the colours- I had second, third and fourth thoughts about the colour combos but when they all fit together, they sang.

Find the beauty in miles of garter stitch - the border is epic but it's the unifying  force.

Whatever you do, don't start well into the pregnancy like I did.  The baby was 2 months old when she finally got it.