Friday Report

well, here is the surplice i've been workign on in Needful Geranium. The yarn has more stretch in person than in my swatch and it's only several sizes larger than i anticipated. the pattern is being emmended, i'll knit it up again in my size.

i was up late working on more swatches for the shrug i've been working on. the Dale Svale knits BEAUTIFULLY! even if it isn't used for this project it's going into production on something. I co-opted one of the Fleece Artist Celtic Cardigan kits for this project. The scotian silk is nice to work with, it's got a lot of body. my third swatch is drying, once it's done i only have a little math left and then it's going to the needles. i woun't bother you with snapshots of swatches, it doens't make for exciting photography.

Friday Freebies
Chair Seat

Scrap Rug

Bunny Love

<<facebook event link:
<<http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=2335023130

To all Toronto Makers & Craft enthusiasts:

You are invited to CraftChat T.O., an informal gathering of people interested in talking about the state of craft, design and DIY culture in Toronto & beyond. Consider this to be a stitch n bitch of the mind…though feel free to bring stuff to keep your hands busy, of course.

This call to gather was inspired by a recent trip by Becky ( Good Catch Craft Fairs, The Sweetie Pie Press ), Jen ( Toronto Craft Alert) & Leah ( Church of Craft, Coldsnap Bindery) to Pittsburgh for Craft Congress 2007, a meeting of crafty minds from North America & Britain (read more about it here). One really interesting thing that came up was how the craft scene/community/culture differs so much from place to place, in terms of people's motivations for participating, how it is perceived by the larger community, and on many other levels. Which begs the question, what's up with craft in T.O.???? What are we doing here, why are we doing it, are we doing it differently than others, could we be doing it better, could we be having more fun, and who is this 'we', anyhow?

Also, we will have materials on hand from the Craft Congress & will be happy to answer any questions about that gathering as well.

If you'd like to participate in CraftChat T.O. (or come hang out & eavesdrop), taking place on Sunday May 27th at 2pm, please RSVP to torontocraftalert@gmail.co

m by May 18th . Once we've got an idea of how many people want to attend, we'll announce the venue.

Looking forward to this,

Becky, Leah & Jen

On the Needles May 6, 2007

I've been working on summer designs for the store lately. I guess books #1 & 2 are on the backburner for the next few weeks and it seems book #3 is nascent. i'm kinda cutting my teeth with store stuff with a simple aesthetic, great shaping and reasonable execution. I'll tell you an anecdote some time about designing for clients, it's a long, dry architectural history ramble.

I've been taking a break from this surplice top in Needful Geranium because it was annoying me (not it per-se, just the designing). I needed a vacation, but i'm back at it this weekend, finishing the arms. It doesn't have a name yet, i'll have to think about it.

Gaia
While avoiding the Geranium surplice i sorta tumbled into a silk tank-top. It was innocent, i swear i wasn't cheating. I started knitting a Handmaiden Silk Vee, but you know me, I'm never happy with the way things are, so i started re-working it. I also already had some Silk Spun in the store so i paired them off and started experimenting with alternating balls of similar but different coloured yarns. you tell me how it works. well, i think it's working well, and this was the pair that was the most dissimilar. gives the colour some depth, and of course prevents the colour from pooling. Right at this moment i'm ripping back a few rows because i decreased when i should've increased. dumb haley.

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