Sunday, December 30, 2012

Christmas Stitching: A Tie for Dad

I've titled this post as Christmas stitching, but really, this is a really, really, really late gift for my dad for Father's Day.  Sorry Dad!  

I love making ties although they are time intensive as everything is hand stitched.  This is  100% silk with a lovely hand and purple and silver design.  The tie is interfaced with lambswool. Dad loved it!  (sorry for the photo)




Friday, December 28, 2012

Christmas sewing: Project bags

I've been sewing project bags for awhile now and recently started selling them through my LYS, Wabi Sabi.  I'm in the process of setting up my etsy store, but in the meantime gave one to my mom for Christmas.

These are my medium wedge bags.  The bag is fully lined, interfaced with fleece and has a handle for easy portability.  My mom loved it!  As you can see, it fits 2 cakes of Madelinetosh Tosh Merino light comfortably.  I also have small and medium box bags and large wedge bags suitable for a sweater's quantity.  






The 2 cakes of Tosh Merino Light are of the colourways Torchere and Charcoal, which will be used for a colour affection along with Cloak.  I went for a little shopping trip to one of my favourite LYS local to my mom in Ancaster, The Needle Emporium.  Julie has great stock with a variety of yarns and accessories, including the most amazing selection of Madelinetosh I have ever seen. If you're in the area, I highly recommend you check it out!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Stitching Heaven

While in Toronto, my boyfriend, MrG, earned the badge of being the best boyfriend EVER by going shopping with me.  And I'm not talking clothes shopping, I'm talking fabric and yarn.  Oh yes my friends -- and he didn't complain once.  Not while I was humming and hawing and searching for the perfect shade of mustard fabric, not while I was trying to match Noro dyelots and not while I touched every single thing I could in the Purple Purl. 

Here we are at The Wool House, where I got some delicious mustard yellow wool crepe.  It will be a simple A-line or pencil skirt. My initial pick was some sort of soft and gorgeous rare cashmere that cost upwards of $200/m (and made the owner laugh when I picked it up and exclaimed "I found it!").  Sh*t I have expensive taste.  



After The Wool House, we made our way back down Queen Street where we hit up Americo and I got a button made out of an avocado pit for my For Good hat and then a button store where I stocked up on some buttons for upcoming sweaters.  I went full on 80s with neon yellow, orange and blue. Then we hopped on the street car and headed to  The Purple Purl.  Here I am collecting some Noro for a Lanesplitter skirt and MrG got some Tanis Fiber Arts DK for his first ever scarf.  Yes, ladies, he's learning to knit (and he's quite good!). And, yes, I'm keeping him:)  



The best day ever.  

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Knitting in Strange Places

Do you knit in strange places?  Well, strange to non-knitters anyways? How do you approach it?  How do you deal with others reactions?

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Vanier Cup and brought my knitting with me.  I don't watch or follow football by any means, but it was something different to do and I really liked the atmosphere.  AND it was the perfect place to pull out my knitting -- I wasn't really paying attention, I was sitting still and there was great lighting and beer!  All conform to a great knitting opportunity.  But, I'll admit, I was very hesitant to pull it out.  I was with a group of people I had just met and I was worried about how they would react (they are much more keen on football than I).  My boyfriend encouraged me to take it out and, well, the reaction was mixed.  Everyone commented on it and some, I don't think, were too pleased.  No one was rude, but I felt very awkward.  I almost put it away but was encouraged to keep going...so I did.  I mean, if I was going to be hanging out with this group, they had better get used to seeing me knit, right?!  But, still, how would you deal?  I'm shy by nature and, yes, probably overly sensitive to other peoples reactions. I'm also definitely not the type to confront anyone, especially this group as it was important for me to make a good impression.  Does anyone have any tips or suggestions on how to deal? Do I just keep doing it until it's no longer "strange" or until I am able to filter out the people around me?

On the upside, I managed to complete a couple of rows of my Secret of Change shawl!  It's out of Space Cadet Lucina fingering in the silver colourway that I got from Rhinebeck.  I'm loving it:)