Uli's Creative Corner

Now that Victoria Fibre Fest is over and I have a few things left from the market, I thought I'd like to introduce the Harbour Lights Shawl Pin.  I had the absolute honour to collaborate with Sivia Harding, lace designer extraordinaire, on the design of this shawl pin.  I was so tickled pink when I was asked to come up with a design for a shawl pin to go with the beautiful Harbour Lights Shawl that she designed for the Victoria Fibre Festival but is now already available to the genral public.  If you haven't seen this gorgeous design, please, come and check it out over here.

I asked Sivia several times what words she would use to describe her design and the ocean, beach, lighthouse theme kept coming to the foreground so I decided I needed to find something to play off that theme.  I was so pleased when I tracked down some lighthouse charms and seashell beads to adorn the simple charm of the basic design of the pin.

So this cream coloured pin is now listed in my shop.  I have a selection of other colours available as well that I haven't photographed yet.  Feel free to ask me what colours I have if you're interested.  Of course, the lighthouse and seashell could easily be removed if the theme wasn't desired and the pin will go with just about any kind of lace shawl, stole or scarf design.

Starting tomorrow, myself and a selection of other Canadian shops are also running a Canada Day/week sale with great discounts.  I am offering 10% off anything in the shop from July 1 through July 5.  I'll list the list of participating shops tomorrow.  So check back to see what wonderful Canadian talent is out there in Etsy land.

And looksie at my first Ladybug handspun:

I think I'm really getting it.  Of course I don't know if my technique is anything that resembles "how you're supposed to do it" but for now it's working for me.  this roving was an alpacca/romney/recycled silk blend and was so easy to draft.

Tomorrow, I'll also show off some recent fibre stash additions.

I have enough fiber to last me for a little while?  Or do I need to give in to more fibre purchases?

top row from left to right: 1. Handpainted Turquoise SW Merino Roving from Julie Spins, 2. BFL wool roving Sunset from Spaceromantic, 3. Watermelon (seedless) - Blue Faced Leicester Roving from Three By Hand

Middle row from left to right: 1. Bashful- Handpainted BFL Roving from Freckle Face Fibres, 2. Calm Serenity Hand carded Targhee mini Pinz batts from Whimzy Pinzy, 3. MonkeyFuzz Superwash Roving - 4oz - Midnight Flowers from Crazy Monkey

Bottom row from left to right: 1. Superwash Wool from Twistoffate Yarns, 2. Cherry Tree Hill Wool roving from Fun Knits, 3. Merino (I think) from Twistoffate Yarns

Summer has started.  Little Miss had her last day at school today.  She is so eager to try Bugsy but I'm not quite sure I can teach her quite yet plus I'm not quite ready to let someone else play with my dear Bugsy.  But can you see how eager she is:

I'm terribly tempted to buy more.......................... but I have NO money.  First I need to order the Lazy Kate that goes with the Ladybug and maybe some more bobbins.  Mind you, if I don't give in to extra bobbins maybe I'll just be forced to spin up one fibre at a time!!!!  What do you think?

With the big news about "Bugsy" the Ladybug out of the bag, I can sit back and recount the weekend's events.  Little Miss named her "Bugsy".  It's starting to grow on me - the name that is - I haven't had a lot of time to spend with Bugsy but the time that I have spent has made me realize that we're going to be happy together. 

So about the Fibre Fest............

Friday

On Friday afternoon we took off to catch the 3 pm ferry from the Mainland to Vancouver Island.  Not much to say about the ferry except that we had a very early, greasy lunch and that we spent most of the rest of the sailing chasing JR around.  Once in Victoria, we checked into our hotel where Brenda was already waiting for us.  We had little time before having to take off to sneak into the fashion show.  I had shawl pins to deliver to go with the Harbour Lights Shawl that was being presented that night.  I don't have a good picture of the pins handy now but I will take some soon.  I'm just a tad busy right now but as soon as I get some good pictures, I will list those that didn't sell on the weekend in my Etsy shop.  I have a few left but not all that many but I can always make more.  This was a wonderful collaboration with Sivia.  It was just amazing to meet her in person after we had exchanged so many e-mails.  As the fashion show drew to a close, my cell phone rang.... well, I guess the kids were pushing hubby right to the edge of sanity.  We came back to the hotel as quickly as we could.  Sleep wasn't really something that was going to had much of this weekend but I didn't really care.

Saturday

Saturday was a fun day.  After breakfast we took off to Minderal World in Sidney.  Little Miss really loves that place.  She collected a nice little bag full of tumbled gem stones for her collection.  From there, we took off to Honeysuckle Studio.  It was a lovely place, a home with the most wonderful garden and a really neat little studio in the front.  This is where Brenda gave up resistance and got her new Lendrum wheel.  I was so excited for her - of course I didn't even try at all to stop her.  By this time, hubby had taken off with the kids to give us some fun time and they wanted to go and  play at the pool back at the hotel anyways.  We then visited Beacon Yarn Cabin and looked around a bit.  It's a nice little shop and staff seemed welcoming and friendly.  I bought one skein of Lana Grossa Meilenweit in a colour that I could just not resist.  It was just too much "ME" - Mind you, I'm trying not to accumulate too much more sock yarn or any yarn - I have so much and of course, now I'm a tad fibre obsessed as well.....

The highlight of Saturday evening was Sivia's talk which I enjoyed thoroughly.  It was wonderful to see and touch all these lovely lace pieces she had brought.  There were at least one or two designs that I didn't think about knitting before but now that I have seen it close up..... well, more lace patterns, here I come.  This time, the kids behaved better for hubby and I didn't get a "please come and rescue me" call.

Sunday - The Big Day

The big day - the market!!! It was windy and I couldn't set up as well as I would have liked to.  I think I got the windiest spot in the whole park.  As a small scale sponsor I had hoped maybe for a spot along with all the other sponsors who were on the far edge of the park where the wind, I think, didn't blow quite as hard.  But anyways............ my tent survived and it didn't blow away.  Yeah!!!! I had an awesome day meeting all kinds of like minded people.  I'm sending a shout-out to my tent neighbour Erynn - I met Erynn via Etsy quite some tie ago.  Her Etsy shop is TwistofFate.  She's recently moved back to Kamloops and is starting up her own store in Kamloops in July.  All in all, a fun day.  Here are some pics to show off how nice it was at the park.

We came home on the 7 pm ferry, very tired and very happy.  It has been a busy week so far so I haven't had much chance to play with "Bugsy" but the fibre I was given as practice fibre drafts so easily it's amazing so I've actually been having very, very positive results and that's so encourageing.  I have to admit that I'm getting tired of dark grey though and I'm ready to move onto some of my fun coloured rovings.

a 2.25 DPN stuck in your thigh............................ you still can't complain because firstly, you didn't break your precious needle at the beginning so you still had it to knit with for the entire weekend and it just shows how wonderful of a weekend you had........... I was so tired that as we were getting back into the car at the end of our ferry trip home from the Island, I stumbled and lost balance and sort of fell on top of my felted tote on the seat of the car.  Of course said DPN poked out and jammed into my thigh and it broke.  But don't worry, I am fine......... I can still feel the spot where the poking occurred but I'll live.  I guess there's something to be said about even wooden DPNs being a possible weapon. :-)  And so much for the smart people at Knitpicks sending 6 DPNs in a set of 5 just in case you lose or break one.  From that set, I now have lost one and broken one..... a lot of good that's doing me.

I don't have pictures yet.  Brenda has already done a really nice job blogging about the weekend.  My blog post will be up tonight or tomorrow depicting the events from my point of view and the angle of my lens.  I just quickly came here to show off the object of my love and attention:

It's the Schacht ladybug and somehow we managed to fit her into the car.  I'm sad that I'm at work (and feeling very tired) and that she's sitting at home.  I think we will be able to spend many happy hours together.

It's off to Fibre Fest in Victoria!!!  I'm not ready but what the heck!!!  Life is too short to worry about it.  My alarm was set for 7 am and I promptly jumped out of bed at 5:30 - my normal weekday wake-up time.  The weather forecast looks decent (let's hope it stays that way).  Brenda will be on her way soon!!  I'm more than sad that Shelley can't be there.  You should see the kitchen table.  At this point, it's still covered in beads, and pins and wire and various findings and accessories.  My hands are sore.  My finger tips are scratchy and with little cuts from all the wire........ but who cares

I`m just  feeling generally excited.  work has been busy and stressful so it`s nice to get a break.  Kiddo is at Sports Day at school for the morning and then we`re off to catch the 3 pm ferry.

See you all next week with lots of news and pictures.

Wow, this past weekend went by in a blur............ I had so much to do for the Victoria Fibre Fest and this weekend was going to be the crunch weekend.  I knew we would be busy with Father's Day activites and a birthday party we were invited to but I had strategies for squeezing in time to create more things.  Well, the best of strategies don't always work out so well..... or maybe not al all is the more likely answer.

Well, let it be said that now I feel the pressure and I have a busy week at work.  I didn't take kindly to the very unorganized birthday party we went to.  I had plans to be back home early in the evening to do some more stuff and to allow hubby to do the prep work he needed to do to attend a course tomorrow.  What can I say, it didn't work out that way.

I did squeeze in some spinning time.  Over the last week, I had been spinning up the blue/purple BFL that I had bought from Yummy Yarns.  If you look at the fibre pictures in the last post - it's the blue and purple braid in the list of several braids I picked up from this lovely Etsy seller via the Coquitlam Farmer's market.  I did a lot more learning while spinning up this roving.  Drafted much more gently which resulted in a thinner yarn.  I still have some very ugly thick patches in there where I just was not handling things well but over all, it's starting to look more like useable yarn.  I think one of the things I was still finding hardest is making a nice join instead of getting really big lumps of fiber at the join of new roving.  The other thing that I'm still struggling with but am also improving on is keeping the yarn nice and even when moving hands to pinch off the twist and draft some more......... I often still get a thicker spot right at the pinch point.  I'm inclined to start something spinning something else now that I feel I've made great strides but I fear that I'm just too busy this week and shouldn't let myself get side tracked.

My next problem was how to ply 4 ounces of yarn on my drop spindle without running out of room on the drop spindle?  I figured I'd have to break the yarn as the spindle got full???  Or get a bigger spindle.... well, I tried to use the space on my spindle wisely and look, I got it all onto the spindle - but really, that was an attempt in futility - at the end, don't ask how often I dropped that darn drop spindle.... so here are the resulting pics:

Oh, and did I tell you?  If we have room in the car next week going home......................... fill in the blanks - I'm just telling you that hubby is the sweetest guy erver!!!!

Back to things............ I hope to have another update before I disappear for next weekend but if not, watch for a fiber filled post after my trip to the Island.

and not someone who was just dabbling with the idea of really wanting to become a spinner.  Just look at all the roving I have accumulated in the last couple of weeks!!!

The first one is a Corriedale roving in a hand dyed colour way called Tulips.  I ordered it on a whim from Etsy seller ExclusivelyLindaLee.  It feels lovely and the colours are awesome.  I really love it a lot.

She also sent an extremely generous sample of this rainbow coloured merino roving that feels super soft and will try at some point down the road.  I contacted her to tell her that my order had arrived and to thank her for the nice sample.  In passing, I mentioned that I'm total beginner idiot drop spindle spinner and she turned around and told me that she'd me mailing off some more practice fibres for me to try.  I can't wait to get them.  I thought that was just too nice.  I'll certainly be back for more - especially when I do get that WHEEL!!!

Yesterday I met a fellow Etsy seller at a local Farmer's market and I had her bring me these wonderful braids of absolute goodness.  The three on the left are BFL (blue faced leicester) and the yellowish/purple one on the right is Finn roving.  I just loved the colours.......  These items are all from YummyYarns.  And shall I add that I expect a few more mail goodies to arrive later on this week.  BAD, BAD.........

Here's another little skein that I spun up.......... it's getting better.  I was reading a Ravelry board (remember - look me up on Ravelry and feel free to make me a friend - I'm mommyknits) post about treating your roving like a baby bird.......... well, that did it............. it clicked.  So there are still a lot of thick spots in this spinning attempt but toward the end, it was getting amazingly better.

On the other side of the spectrum............ here's a miserably failed attempt at plying the lovely blues and purples I was spinning up last week.  It turned into a sad tangle that I could not do anything to........ a picture to remember back one of my first attempts.

Norwegian Woods............ the picuture doesn't do it justice at all.  It's just lovely.  I'm into the first repeat of Chart C and I'm getting close to 400 stitches on the needles.  Maybe more around 350 but thereabouts anyways.

My current sock project is a re-knit of my Chain Links Sock pattern.  I'm using SWTC Tofutsies in this lovely purple shade.  I really enjoy knitting with the yarn and I think the socks will be lovely when they are done.  There's a lot of purling in this pattern but it has lost of elasticity.  It's almost like a 4X4 rib so it goes in a lot when knitting but looks great when putting it on.

Other than that, I'm frantically getting ready for Victoria.  Here's just a small assortment of the stitch markers that will be coming with me:

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I've been feverishly working away on all the pretties that I will bring to the market.  I think I'm running out of time - I figure the next two weeks will be very busy!!!!

Wow, what a busy weekend............... I had fun though and I think hubby liked that somewhere along the way, I lost my voice............... not a lot of talking from me. :-)

I have lots to share.  I should probably save it and post it bit by bit but hey, that's not my style so I'll just throw it all out there.

On Friday night, I experimented the first time the process of plying with my drop spindle.  I'm sure if an experienced spinner had watched me how I went about it, I would have heard that I was breaking all kinds of fundamental spinning rules but ah well............. in the end, I ended up with two little plied, very bulky and in areas very lumpy skeins.  They are cute though, aren't they?

Once I had accomplished these 2 little skeins, I decided that I'd venture out to try this lovely Norther Lights wool top in awesome bluish/green/purple shades that I really didn't want to waste on my inexperience.  In the end, I figured "what the heck" and I tried.  I decided to take my time and work with the park & draft method so that I would be able to concentrate on make a skinnier singly ply and figuring out how much to draft etc.  I love how it's turning out:

I'm a little over halfway done now.  I'm very pleased with it.

A bit of knitting.................  I finished this lovely pair of Trekking socks.  They've been hanging around forever.  I'm glad they are finally done.  The yarn is just fun.

On Saturday, we headed out to Chilliwack to celebrate Nana's birthday and Nana just happens to live less than 5 minutes away from Aunt Debbie's Knit and Stitch store.  I got there a little late but their answering machine said that they were open until 5 pm.  I got there about 4.35 but the doors were closed.  It turns out that they had just changed over to summer hours which meant closing at 4 pm on  Saturdays.  Well, the nice lady in the shop was just knitting and waiting for her husband to pick her up so she let me in to browse........ I ended up with two lovely skeins of Toffutsies by SWTC.

You can see needles under the purple skein as I've started casting on for a pair of my Chain Links sock pattern.  I've been wearing my pair that I made from some great Trekking out so I wanted to knit it again.  The nice lady in the store (whose Ravelry name I meant to remember but already forgot) also pointed me to a nice Tofutsies sock pattern called Tidal Wave.  I like that pattern and will make it with one of my other Tofutsies skeins I have in my stash.

While enjoying the birthday cake later on, JR decided that he just couldn't get enough of the cake:

Yesterday, Little Miss lost her 3rd tooth:

And yesterday I made a bunch of lovely new things for my shop.  A few new things are listed.  I don't have any new pins listed yet but here's an assortment of the pins I made yesterday:

What do you think:  Creative, busy, fun enough weekend?