Frolic, Creativ and Alpacas, oh my!

And...she lives!

Okay, catch up time.


Here is my booth at Knitter's Frolic, circa April 26. It was good times. One of my "neighbours" in the room I was in turned out to be one of my actual neighbours Michelle from Sweet Sheep . She lives in Newcastle! Right across the marina from me! This could be dangerous.Yes, that is my antique spinning wheel you can see there in the corner - still available (you know you want it!)

And yes, I did go to Creativ Festival the next day and I have to say that the knitting scene there suffered somewhat from the scheduling of the Frolic on the same weekend. I dropped by the Rose Haven Farm Store booth, who carry Fur Yarn, and treated myself to some Hand Maiden Sea Silk yarn in a beautiful grey-green/silvery colourway, and some of that wacky sock yarn Tofutsies in a fun mix that reminds me of springtime and flowers. It's got that crazy "Chitin" in it. I just love that word:"Chitin". It sounds a bit like a swear, don't you think? For those of you who aren't aware (that would be my relatives and the parents of my son's friends) Chitin is fiber made from shrimp and crab shells (ew!) and is naturally antibacterial (you don't say?!).

My next blog-worthy adventure was to Spinning Wheel Alpacas Open House and Shearing Day. I packed up my son and drove 20 minutes north of my place to the farm. Ruben had a nice little nap on the way. I drove through torrential rain, cursing the fact I hadn't headed up earlier in the day before the weather hit. But when I arrived, I was pleased to find this. The lady at the admission gate said I brought the sun with me. I woke Ruben up and we discovered some beasties fresh from their haircuts.

These fellas are in the "waiting room" waiting for the next available stylist(s). Note the one on the left who is looking to sneak back out.

Here is the crew who do the 'do's. The table you see has a top that pivots so it is sideways and the "client" is sidled up against the table and the whole thing is tipped back upright so the beastie is lying on its side. There is a bit of trussing up (for the safety of the client), but try telling that to the critter on the table! Many hands go to work keeping the client calm and still, trimming off the fibery gold and doing a bit of routine maintanence as well. Then it's 'flip'.... and the client is released transformed!

Here is a mama and her cria (baby) having their photo taken with a mama and her cria (baby). You decide which is which. Only one of the mama's has recently done some table time and has had her spring clip. The other is wearing a hat.

This is a farewell shot of one of the alpacas (and friends) who I believe to be one that I will buy fleece from. She's the chocolate brown one in the foreground and her name is Ebbie. I'm still waiting for a quote.

I also ran into Michelle from Sweet Sheep yet again, sharing booth space with the owner of Kniterary in Whitby. My son made his momma proud by trying desperately to convince them both to give him free yarn. When that didn't work he convinced me to buy him a yummy hank of part Alpaca/part Superwash Merino sock yarn.

Next post? I took the Fur Yarn by Paula Lishman show on the road to TNNA, a gigantic trade show for all manner of needlearts, down in Columbus Ohio. I was in awe. I love my job!

Have Faith

No, I haven't forgotten my promise to post a free pattern and update all y'all on my trip to the Knitter's Frolic (and my popping in to Creativ Festival), but who knew work and motherhood were such an all-encompassing combination?!? At the moment I am getting over cold#2 which is a leftover from my son's throat infection, I think, but at this point I'm equally prepared to blame allergies. I seem to succumb to something heinous at spring time. For instance, were any of you at Creativ Festival last spring and caught my Knitting Stuffed Animals talk? Double pink eye, my friends. Enough said.

So now I have to go shopping for clothes in Toronto with my Other Mother (mother-in-law can have negative connotations and they definitely don't apply here!). I use the word "have" because I'm not a major clothing shopper, but I need work clothes for my new gig at Fur Yarn and my Other Mother and I exchanged gift certificates for Winners at Christmas time.

This weekend should be spent gardening (I run a plant stand on the honour system out front at my place this time of year), and I have to get some annuals re-potted. I also hope to work on some Fur Yarn-y goodness too. I am doing three things for them right now: 1) reworking an existing collar pattern into a short scarf for Knit Simple magazine (the original is S119 - a zig-zag collar done in Rex Rabbit - link to the site and check kits), crocheting a sample of their Rex Rabbit Cape (kit# SL 104), and modifying my Wee Mouse pattern for Fur Yarn, with the hopes of knitting the body in the round and like a tiny sock, "turn the heel" to create the shaping for the head. Wish me luck on that one.

Sorry about the lack of pics. I'll do a catch-up post with some type of knitting eye-candy asap. Maybe this weekend. Don't hold me to anything. Apparently I suck on the continuity of blogging front.

Catching Up and Moving Forward

Yes, so I have been crazy busy (and also a little bit sick) lately. I wanted to share about my spinning fun of last weekend before I move on to everything else (which is causing me my sickness and general feelings of tired, tired, tired!). Last Sunday I was at our local museum participating in a Pioneer Day. I got all dressed up and took my lovely Quebec production wheel and sat spinning all afternoon. (I am not posting a pic of me in costume because I look vaguely wretched in the two I had to choose from, so here is a pic of the setup). I plied some Icelandic fleece that had been moth-nibbled, so I overspun it in my paranoia that it would fall apart if I did not. That left it a wee bit "ropey" after I washed it, so I apologized to the gods of spinning and concentrated on how much I loved the two ply I spun and plied of a bump of mixed Romney wool that I have had forever (seriously, it's the first bit of fluff I ever bought!).




On Monday, my husband, son and I went to my parents' house for a lovely dinner with my little neice, Kate (yes, her mother was there too!) Here is Kate enjoying the Fur Yarn beaver yarn headband that my son was modelling in my last post. Both she and her mum loved it and Santa has taken note....




Next we move on to preparation for the Downtown (Toronto) Knit Collective's Knitter's Frolic, on deck for tomorrow. I have titled this pic "waiting for paint to dry", which is exactly what I was doing at the time - I had to re-paint my booth sign. You can also see knitting needles in progress as well. This has been my week. What complicates things even more was my brilliant idea to take stuff from Fur Yarn with me too, which sounded like a blast (and I'm sure it will be once I am there and set up) but for the last few weeks I have been readying stock at Fur Yarn and then coming home to do the same thing here. The end is in sight, though, my friends. I leave at 3pm today to set up, ready or not, and besides having to take the last two nights off due to illness and weeping into a lovely bbq dinner prepared by my husband yesterday because of all the time I had lost things are looking good. I will have yarn, I will have patterns, I will have shelving (quite key!) and all the bits and bobs required to sell things. Now I have to go and wax some wooden needles and pack the car before it rains (please don't rain on my newly painted sign - I really am quite pleased with it!).










By the way, here is a pic of a spinning wheel I am hoping to sell at the Frolic, but I have severe doubts that it will fit in my car. Check it out. Any interests, email me through my address in My Profile.







P.S. Check back here next week (maybe even as late as next Friday - taxes and illness being what they are) for a free pattern release!! Hint- if you bought one of my puppy patterns at Frolic (or any other time), you will be tickled.....

Only a week late....

Alright, so I've dropped the ball a wee bit when it comes to posting, especially since the big Harlot event was a full week ago, but really, what more is there to say that hasn't already been said by knit-bloggers everywhere. For my part, I went in to "The Big City" with my new boss, Paula and introduced her to the wacky world of the Yarn Harlot.



I brought along a Fur Yarn project to work on, as did Paula. Mine is shown here. It is the Child's Scarf in a colour called Rose Beige. Paula had a headband stuffed in her purse that she finished at the event, along with some hair clips decorated with fur (she left one of those as part of the tip for our waitress at the pub after the talk!).



Also on the "show-and-tell" front. May I present my willing (for now) model (and son), Ruben, sporting my first ever Fur Yarn piece, the Headband. This colourway is an ombre shade in Navy. Ombres are made with Premium Grade Beaver fur, where fur is dyed without bleaching the pelts first (done with most other colours to ensure an even colour) and the colours take differently to the different shades of the fur, so some looks almost black depending how it catches the light - very hard to see in my amateurish pic!



The obligatory "socks-on-the-needle" picture (which is a common project for me) is D.G. Handknitting Yarns' self-striping stuff, col# 2603. I am employing my lovely Latern Moon ebony dpns that my soon-to-be-sis-in-law bought me for Christmas (I know it was all her because I pulled her in to Lettuce Knit down in Kensington Market to show her its delights and pointed out a few appropriate items for Santa's consideration). I'm working the pattern from Ann Budd's "recipe book" for knitters, The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. I love how the heel flap is worked, leaving a little chain of selvedge stitches on the end. This is new to me, and a keeper in my books. There was something to do with the turning of the heel that I didn't like, but I can't remember it right now, so I'll have to let you know when I get to it on sock #2. I feel like I might end up with my own "master sock recipe" at some point that draws on all my favourite tricks collected from the different patterns I've tried. The length of the first sock is a bit of a problem for some reason. I did my usual "try the sock on until it's long enough to reach the base of your baby toe" thing and then did my decreases. The sock is very small to look at. Yes, it fits, but I guess it is stretching when on my foot, cause I hold it out against my foot and I have to stretch it to match the actual size of my foot. What's that mystery about being bigger on the inside than the outside? I can go with that. Maybe I will nickname these socks my "Bermuda Triangle" socks?

Hooray!

Hi there! It's been a long time coming, but Sweet Pea Knits finally has a blog. Here you will find general musings about knitting (mine and others - I can't crank out all that much on my own!), notices about the upcoming events where I'll be taking my show out on the road, some free pattern postings to accompany some of the critters already in my collection, and a place to link to my email if you have any requests for or questions about the stuff you see.



Did you see the part in my profile about my new "real" job? Yes, I also work for Fur Yarn by Paula Lishman, and I am desperately in love with this unusual fibre (yes, it is real fur!) and want to share the love with knitters everywhere, so there will be some rather blatant cross-promotional activity going on here too. First off, check out their website http://furyarn.com/. I'll be authoring a newsletter for them as well, so feel free to subscribe if you want.



Also on the cross-promotional front, you can find me at the upcoming Toronto Downtown Knit Collective's Knitter's Frolic on Saturday April 26. Link to them here: http://downtownknitcollective.ca/. I'll have all the usual suspects in my animal pattern line and those cute knitting needles I had at Creativ Festival last fall (perhaps I'll post some pics of those later). I'll also have some Fur Yarn kits, yarn, catalogs and whatnot for you to peruse as well. I have to say, like most yarns, talking about it and actually touching it are two totally different things. And don't let the pricing fool you, this is definitely a yarn with loads of "knit-outside-the-box" potential and a little goes a long way.



Are you going to the Yarn Harlot's big new book launch in Toronto on April 1st (gee, I hope it's not a hoax!)? I'm planning on it, so look for me clicking away on some type of fur project. There's also a plan for a pub visit afterwards and I think I can sneak in a pint of cider before returning to the wilds of Ontario from whence I came. If you're wondering what all the fuss is about, check with the Harlot herself: http://yarnharlot.ca/blog/.



Well, I think that's a fair start, don't you? Feel free to let me know. Look for more activity soon as I am planning on offering some free pattern posts to coincide with my appearance at the Frolic. And I know that knitters everywhere enjoy, nay, demand pictures of WIPs and the like, so I'll get right on that too......