Yesterday Elise and I got together for a quick little photo shoot at Woodstream Park. We had a lot of fun. It was a beautiful morning and the trees and surrounding foliage was so full of colour. Gorgeous backdrop for the knitting!
This is a pattern that I am working on for Cindy and Roy of Gathering Yarn. The yarn is a superwash merino aran called Bingo – a lovely yarn to work with.
The rest of the items are a few hats and accessories that will be showing up in the next few weeks!
Do you have a button box? Or better yet your Mother’s or Grandmother’s button box? Do you use them? Or simply admire them? I do both.
My Mother’s box was lost to time and just one too many moves. It was a huge glass jar that I loved to look through. She didn’t do much sewing, but she would knit occasionally. Like me I think that she just loved buttons.
But my boxes are pretty full. Collected over my time of sewing, knitting and well, collecting buttons! I love buttons! They are a fabulous item that can just add that perfect touch to your finished garment or they can be applied as embellishments. Adding buttons to button bands, or as design details is the one aspect of finishing my knitted pieces that I actually enjoy! I have also used shell buttons as embellishments in many of my knits – I love their sheen and the way they pick up the colours of the yarn.
My button collection!
This morning I was busy finishing off a childs vest – Reindeer Vest – that I had Jana knit up in Patagonia Organic Merino as a store sample. I also got her to knit the doll vest – Mini Reindeer Vest – as well. The original set was my Grandson’s Christmas Gift a couple of years ago. The Mini Reindeer Vest is a free pattern and will fit most medium dolls or bears! The Reindeer Vest is 50% off right now until Nov 30. Use the code Reindeer.
It was a good thing I found a few button options for the vest as I was scrambling through my button box looking for some buttons! I started to sew on my original choice of button – I thought they were a nice bright red – I realized that the red buttons were really pink – bad early morning lighting! So, I went with another option!
Not a bad thing to have a button box at hand as buttons seem to be a little scarce right now!
It has been a good week, beautiful sunrises and sunsets at Departure Bay Beach. Roses still in bloom on the Promenade and always knitting.
Last Fall I was approached by Susan Gibbs of Juniper Moon Farm Yarns to designs a collection of hats and accessories for this Winter 22/23 Season. So began an epic knitting journey. I created 16 patterns, many with coordinating accessories to be released this fall.
I don’t think that I have ever created so many patterns in such a short period of time. The yarns made it easy and the support was great. I hope that you see something that you like.
Many of them will be in your local yarn stores if they carry Juniper Moon. Some are already up on Ravelry with the rest to follow as Juniper Moon has time to put them up. I have linked up the patterns that are on Ravelry, just click on them and you will be wisked away to the pattern. The patterns currently on Ravelry include Cherry, Dimity, Dubloons, Helm, Smoosh and Arabesque and Cricket.
When new yarns come in my brain sets off all sorts of ideas of what to do and when to do it and what should come first! I pull out my stitch libraries and pore over the options trying to find the perfect stitch to show off the new yarn that has captured my imagination.
Star tweed is a stitch pattern from Barbara Walker’s first stitch library, and it is an easy, repeating, 2 colour slip stitch pattern. Knit in a very bulky wool the tweed is a bold statement that can show off any two colours beautifully! Can you see it in two shades of grey? Or maybe a bold black and white?
Boldly Star Tweed
Why Not a Headband
Warm Cowl
Big Bold Mittens
Package Deal
I am featuring this stitch in my new pattern Boldly Star Tweed. Star Tweed is a basic Winter Set, Hat, Mittens and Cowl. The Cowl is small which also makes it a great headband. The complete set can be made from 2 skeins of Estelle’s new yarn – Eco Scandinavian Bulky. Making it quick to knit and economical. I used a range of needle sizes – 6.5mm and 8.0mm for the mittens and 8.0mm and 10mm for the hat and cowl. The Eco Scandinavian Bulky worked up fabulously on any of the needle sizes I tried.
Eco Scandinavian Bulky is a thick and squishy, super bulky yarn made from 100% organic Scandinavian Wool and is GOTS certified. Its single ply construction has great stitch definition, feels soft next to the skin, and let’s you knit or crochet beautiful projects super quickly!
Hand wash cool, lay flat to dry.
The Eco Scandinavian Bulky lives up to its’s name. It is soft, bulky, with a slightly uneven texture that works up quickly. The yardage is very generous – it seems to go on forever! I just kept on knitting and there is still some left over!
Boldly Star Tweed will be available on Ravelry in a couple of weeks.
How to work the star tweed stitch.
Star tweed is a slip stitch and wrap style pattern. it is worked over 4 sts. Stitches are made and moved (dropped over) on every other row. The rows in-between the working rows are knit plain. Note – the first 2 sts of every working row will be slipped forward or back so that the pattern is offset. See pattern for full details.
slip the first st, find the yarn that runs between the slipped st and the next st on the left-hand needlemake a new st by knitting into the space below the running yarn.pull the yarn through to form a st., slip the next st.knit the next st and then lift the first slipped stitch over the next 3 sts.drop the lifted stitch onto the knitting.knit the 4th st, repeat from
What do you think? Ready to give it a try? I will post again when the pattern goes live with a code to allow you to purchase the pattern at reduced price!
What is Wovember you might ask? It is a celebration of all things wool related! It is a month of prompts on Instagram with #wovember and #Ilovewovember. I tried to participate last year but life got too busy! It may again this year but maybe not – I won’t know until I try! If you are interested check here or here for more information.
A few months ago I watched a fascinating little video about Leavers Lace and why it was so expensive. Amazing!
So why has this come to mind once again?
Yesterday I went to my favourite fabric store in Victoria, Gala Fabrics. I only go about once a year and not at all in the last couple of years. Umm, I wonder why? LOL!
I generally shop the Vintage woolens section, you know the section where all the wools and wool blends are discounted to $10.00 a meter! Such a good deal! And you know that wool fabrics can be over dyed – just like wool yarns! So many options.
But I digress! Leavers Lace! This is todays topic.
As I was perusing the woolens with the help of a a wonderful sales person (I am so sorry that I didn’t get her name). She got that I was into vintage stuff and loved fabrics and she happened to mention that a great deal of very expensive beaded lace fabric had just hit the discounted fabric section. Expensive as in it used to start at $149,00 and went up to $200.00 dollars a metre and here it was at $10.00 a metre.
Not in perfect condition, despite their best efforts to protect the lace (some of it had to be over 40 years old). On some pieces the sequins were discoloured, but still iridescent and in spots the fabric had also discoloured. And it was a little dirty. Time fades us all. It doesn’t matter! Every bead and sequin had been placed by hand, the every piece lace was an intricate designs of holes that was beautiful! The work that goes into creating each piece of fabric was amazing!
Look at the drape of the fabric!
We are no longer a society that really dresses up, not with the lace, beads and sequins of the past. Perhaps for weddings or graduation parties and not so much as tastes change. Here on the west coast dress-up now is quite often a pretty dress and nylons (can the nylons – lets just say a pretty dress and sandals)!
But Oh if we were still that society!
So I bought a metre and a half of the most beautifully decorated fabric I have ever seen. Machine and handwork combined in a way we don’t see any more, except in theatrical productions and period movies. I am going to make myself a little jacket or little top to wear out and maybe bring back another era if only for a moment.
On my piece there are some loose beads and detail work that needs to be reattached. I can fix all of that. It is still so beautiful! This is the Leavers Lace.
How do you work? It quiet solitude? In the hub hub of a busy room? On a neat desk with everything laid out? In chaos?
Everyone – creative or non creative has a favourite place and way of working. There are even magazines devoted to creative work spaces! A friend of mine collects them for ideas and dreams of what she would like her ideal creative space to be like. I would really like to know about your spaces. Is it a dedicated space? A shed or studio out back? A room with lots of shelves and space designed just for you and your creativity? A spot in your living room?
I have that too – a spot in the living room, surrounded by yarn and chaos, where I sit and knit and be part of the family dynamic.
I would like my formal workspace to be tidy – I really would! I seldom achieve that as I would rather be creating than tidying – and when I start to tidy ideas come out of the chaos and bite me in the proverbial a… and all thoughts of tidying go out the window as I dive into a new idea! I have often said that I work best in Chaos. And right now Chaos is my constant companion.
Right now my workspace has achieved the honour of being the messiest and most chaotic it has ever been! Perhaps this is a good thing as I have needed to be more creative in my knitting designs than ever. Its this big new “thing” I am doing. It requires a lot of time and creativity – and as I still am working full time – my housekeeping – never a great deal – has completely fallen to the wayside.!
This big “thing” is a designing job. A largish number of patterns in varying yarns for a largish yarn company – in a smallish piece of time! It has been so much fun and so challenging in a creative way! I will share more as I can! I have had help with sample and test knitting – we all need help sometimes. I am learning how to ask for it as needed.
bees and butterflies
There have small breaks where I have worked on my own patterns as I waited for yarns to arrive. Bees and Butterflies was created in one of those breaks. I should have been tidying – but you know how the story goes! LOL!
My desktop – it can barely be seen right now! Much more chaotic than normal!
UPDATE – Started this a few months ago – in the height of the crazy creative time. I am in a bit of a lull right now – working on things for myself and looking forward to the next spate of crazy times. Still can’t really talk about the earlier project but the patterns are due to drop any day! Then I will be talking like crazy!
I am almost finished the Shetland Fusion Ebook. I “found” another pattern that I had started before Covid and it is perfect for Shetland Fusion! Summer Shells, a half Pi shawl that features Shetland Lace Shell Patterns! Umm and maybe a few beads.
