Bonnet Peek

Sneak peek day!

This is Linsey Woolsey, a suuuuper cute bonnet that's nearly ready to be published. It's my new favourite thing. Can't wait for you all to see it!

Details to come soon.

From Skein to Sweater: A Rhinebeck Adventure

The road to Rhinebeck starts here.
Well, it started at last year's Rhinebeck, but we'll get to that in a minute.

Rhinebeck is the location for a much celebrated sheepie, fibrey, yarny festival in New York State during the most beautiful time of year.
A powerful gathering place for knitters from all over the continent (and dare I say, even world!?), books have been written about it and the specific magic and drive that is: The Rhinebeck Sweater.

I've been to Rhinebeck twice; the first trip was sweater-less, but I cottoned on for the second year and am now riding high on inspiration and am going for the third.

Along with my friends at Handknit I'll be heading down for the whole weekend, hopefully bedecking in a very new, very lime green, sweater. At Rhinebeck 2013 I fell in love with this yarn (pictured: it's Maple Creek Farm Yarns "Sherman" in Lime; 80% superwash wool, 20% nylon, 400 y / 3.5 oz).
You knew I would, right? Totes. This is an amazing colour.
I was a bit trepidatious, if you can believe it; I did question at the time of purchase, "Will I be able to wear this in a sweater and not feel... overdone?"

Well my knitterly friends, I have the solution. To balance the eye-searing beauty that is this neon green, I've decided to go pretty damn traditional with the accompanying pattern.
I'm thinking a basic, classically-inspired aran sweater will do the trick.

With this is mind, I've been searching Ravelry for some cable-inspiration, mostly hanging around Alice Starmore's portfolio (designs like Eala Bhan and St. Brigid) and the lovely Vika by Veronik Avery (and I do indeed know it's for kids. I'm digging the cable combinations).

As for the shape and construction of the sweater itself, I'm thinking of my favourite sweater elements: a wide and deep scoop neck, top-down seamless, with elbow or 3/4 length sleeves. Maybe even get creative with the waist/bust shaping. We shall see. But certainly it will have some negative ease and my loveist of ribs, the 1x1 twisted.

I'm excited! And possibly ill-advised. Start a sweater NOW for mid-October? When I have plenty of other knitting that needs to be done? AND a Christmas present from last year that remains incomplete?
Naaaaah. I'm good. I'm gonna indulge. Because I don't believe it's technically a Rhinebeck sweater if you aren't stressing over it and desperately weaving in the ends during the road trip.

Magic, I tells ya. Magic.

Keeping What's Secret, Secret

I have a friend who decided she wanted to knit a sweater for her husband several Christmases ago. As many of you are well aware, sweaters are not the #1 easiest thing to hide. I mean, even if you knit it in pieces when your gift-receiver isn't around, you still have the sticky tricky task of blocking that sizable project.

Well lo, if my friend didn't come up with the clever idea of hiding her blocking mat beneath their bed! Ha! Her husband had NO idea that he was sleeping right above his Very Secret Christmas Gift.





I too have secret knitting. They're not gifts, but instead are patterns-to-be-published in the future. Sometimes that future is fairly soon, other times that future is close to a year away! So, I feel a little sneaky when I've been spending so much time knitting, and have naught I'm able to show for it on the blog here.

And it's certainly easy for me to keep it secret! No hiding it under the bed for me! (and anyway, under my bed is a scary, scary place. It's where the Dust Bunnies dwell. Those legendarily viscous creatures who only move when you're not looking at them and hungrily gobble up any and all things you foolishly allow to drop anywhere near the floor near their territory. They were recently mounting a takeover of the Under The Dresser territory, and that's when I launched an attack, using a pincher movement with the Dirt Devil and Swiffer divisions).

But my friend? That's super-secret-ninja-knitting going on there.
As I can't show you what I'm working on with that GORGEOUS yellow loveliness pictured there, I'll ask you all instead:

Have YOU ever done some stealthy secret knitting? How did you keep it under wraps?

He's the Dude, Even Without His Sweater

I'm rounding the corner!
At least, I'm telling myself this partial truth in order to diminish my shame and guilt for still, on the eve of what I'm hoping may be spring, not having my boyfriend's Christmas gift complete.

I'm about halfway through the second sleeve, which means I only have to seam both of those in, knit the neckline, and sew the zipper.
Only.

But here I present photographic proof of the pile of knitting I've done. Really!
I joked about a month ago that I'd be seaming the last seam on the first really warm day of the year. This may prove to be part self-fulfilling prophecy, and part incredible perception.

I'm enjoying the knit - really! It's a very relaxing pattern to follow.
I also have these fantasies that, if I really do finish this just in time for my boyfriend to not be able to wear it this winter, he'll be handsomely sporting it on some wonderous night while we're camping.
Can you even imagine camping? Do you remember the summertime? I'm not sure it's real.
I'll keep you in the loop if I find solid evidence of this "summertime".

In the meantime, I knitterly knit knit away.

Plum Rondo: An Exercise in HappyTimes

I've had pan-craftual startitis.
It's a very serious condition, where you run screaming from your deadline knitting into the waiting, warm, and wuvly¹ arms of every other thing you like that's crossed your path in the last two weeks.

Yesterday I showed you the skirt I just finished. And as soon as I get me a photographer, I'll show you the dress I just sewed, but today's peek into my plethora of procrasti-projects is the Plum Rondo a la Turk by Julia Farwell-Clay.
I first spied it in Knitty's Fall 2013 issue and fell in love immediately, but I didn't have the time or yarn to jump in.
Then I saw Threadpanda's very pretty version a few days ago and decided it's time for the Rondo to begin.
The pattern calls for worsted weight, but I'm stubborn and have had what turns out to be the perfect (coloured) yarn for the project for nigh on an embarrassing number of years.
It's madelinetosh Pashmina in Fig, Tomato, Citrus and Gilded. Oooo... fiery yarns...
This yarn is happiness running through your fingers as you knit. But one thing: it's absolutely not the right weight. Which means this will turn out to be less of a relax-a-knit, and a bit more of a doing-maths-a-knit. I chuckle with confidence and strut with unwon pride around the barnyard that is my Farm of Possible Doom (this is a very silly post. The mood happens to strike.)

Translated into English, I think I mean to say that it's all fine and good for me to be pleased with my progress and math/gauge messing now, but I suspect the sailing will stop being smooth about the time I have to navigate the beautiful yoke. In particular, I fear the demons row gauge un-checked may strike upon me.

But writing it out in a blog post means that it won't be a problem, right?

In absolutely unrelated news: the giveaway for the adorable Raise A Glass! embroidery pattern from Red Letter Day Stitches has been drawn and the winner is Meredith MC!
Congratulations! Just pm me on ravelry @canarysanctuary and let me know your preferred email address to receive the pattern pdf.

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¹ Uh.... the things I do for alliteration.

I love Zen Yarn Garden!

In the works at Canary Knits HQ is another piece in conjunction with Zen Yarn Garden.
Merrily I've been knitting along. Here's a sneak peek, in a very beautiful colourway called Poodle Skirt.

I love it so very much! I can't wait to show you all the rest!

Holla Knits Sneak Peek

Holla Knits is an exciting, fun new emag which focuses on bold, challenging, fashion-forward designs.
This stuff is so right up my alley. (Srlsy, any mag that publishes a romper pattern makes my heart go a-flutter).

So I was increda-excited when my submission was accepted for their Accessories 2012 collection.

There's a post about my experience knitting up the sample (preview seen in the pic here) published on the Holla Knits blog today.

This collection will be published in October: I can't wait for ya'll to see it! October feels sooo faaar awaaay!

I Knit, and Here's the Proof

Why yes world, I do knit on occasion.
I might be metaphorically winded by my bitty wrist issue, but progress that can be made shall be made.

Herein you see evidence of my knitterly endeavours.

This is part of the planned publication of February's YearLong YarnSong. I'm really rather excited to wear it, so the rapidly approaching spring, if nothing else, has spurred me on to completion!
You can't go wearing a wool cardigan in the heat! Or at least, I certainly can't.

January Sneak Peek; Or, YLYS in (semi) Hiatus

Well then.

My unfortunate predictions about my wrist have come true, and I fear it's highly unlikely that January's (and likely February's) editions of YearLong YarnSong will be published on time.

What with my wrist looking gross and icking me out, my progress has been much.... slower.... than it's normal pace.

Alright, boo hoo session over.

I do have a sneak peek photo for you!

This particular pattern, I'm very keen to have finished. Certainly so that I can share it with you all, but also, rather selfishly, because I WANTS to WEAR IT!

*insert evil laugh here*

Sneak Peek: Autumn Little Seasonals

I'm not giving too much away today, but I thought I'd open a little window on to what I've been busying myself with over recent weeks.

Pictured is a close up of the two patterns I've designed, almost ready and definitely waiting to be featured in the Autumn edition of Little Seasonals.

My current stumbling block? Photos. It's quite something to pose for photos in hot hot July and pretend it's cool and comfortable October!

What be This WIP?

Just a quick WIP photo today. Sadly, my wrist is doing that thing where you're really keen to knit, and then it says "oh no you don't!", and gets all tense and tender on ya. So, I'll be back with an FO pic (hopefully, surely!) soon.

Photo deets: this is some of that purty madelinetosh I had blogged about a few days ago. The knit's coming together pretty well - I can't wait to finish it and show you all!

L'Oiseau Bleu: Knit Picks Stroll Stars in "The Bluebird of Happiness"

If you've followed this bloggy for a while now, you may have noticed the distinct lack of cerulean- or cobalt-coloured, teal- or turquoise-tinted, yarnny friends. (that is, until very recently!)
This is in part due to my stated, (waveringly) confident opinion that blue is not my colour.
But oh, how lovely it can be.
Irresistible, in fact.

Meet Exhibit A:
Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Deep Waters.

The tone-on-tone action happening in this yarn dances beautifully.
Especially with my current design.

It's all about cables, sock yarn and a scoop-necked sweater that sits on my coffee table and begs me to come home soon soon SOON and knit more. This yarn makes me so happy!

As you can see, it's currently in the getting-started stage.
This is in part because I had a bit of a time wrestling with which cables to use, and of course, my mortal enemy, Mr. Mathematics.

In the end Mr. Math and I've signed a truce; he's claimed he'll work with me on this one.
But just this one.

Damn you Mr. Math!!

Sometimes You Can't Explain Inspiration

Why's there a picture of a bloody, sweaty and arrow-wielding Russell Crowe appearing on this blog? Believe it or not, I do have more than one reason.¹

Last night I went to see Robin Hood. I wasn't disappointed - especially since I had something of a eureka-knitterly-inspiration moment while sitting there feasting on the visual delights of said film.

As the characters travel through the beautiful, lushly green English countryside, a great panoramic shot reveals to the viewer grand rolling hills, one adorned with the image of a graceful white horse.
Something about that white horse captured me. As soon as I saw it, a design sprang fully formed into my mind, along with three words: White Horse Hill.² It sounded so musical!
But what was the connection between pattern, words and image?

My designing system doesn't usually function like this - but I'm going to have to leave the mystery of this inspiration alone for the moment. I'm so excited about this knit, my brain keeps buzzing about it.

Remember, only a few days ago when I posted about my new lovely Madeline Tosh sock yarn? Well, it's found a purpose!
I hope to have some more details coming very soon. Suffice it to say, I'll be winding some lovely blue yarn and knitting like crazysauce over the next few days!

___________________
¹I've recently come to realize a couple truths about myself.
a) My movie genre, like it or not, is almost anything based in an historic time period. Extra points if it's a romance, or at the very least got a hottie in it.
b) I find "historic role" Russell Crowe to be hot. The more ancient the time period, the hotter, it seems. Hm.

² For any of my British readers, I'm sure you immediately recognized the reference (as well as anyone more greatly educated in England's history than I!) Obviously, the first thing I did when I got home was google the terms, to mediocre success. None of the (very lovely) white horses looked like the one in the film.
My conclusion? I'm still scoobied as to why they put that particular white horse in the film, rather than the other white horse which, I believe, is the one associated with the county where King John met with his barons.

Knit Picks Independent Designer; Or, I Get Yarn Happy!

As you may have noticed, I've been rather silent as of late.

Herein I proffer one of the reasons; that is, I've been busy as a bee working on some patterns. Way back in the penultimate months of 2009, I was invited to be part of Knit Picks Independent Designer Partnership Program. Flattered, I certainly was.

And of course my mind started a-whirring, dancing out ideas and buzzing on the excitement of new yarns and possibilities.

My YarnCrush^TM as of late has been Knit Picks' Palette.
The first garment I've been working on for my Knit Picks trifecta¹ is one I've lovingly titled Chauntecler (pictured in a rather dreamily-edited teaser photo at right).
It's a dress, short-sleeved, with lace detailing on the back. And I'm sure you can imagine, knitting a dress in fingering weight takes one a bit of time.

I do hope to have the pattern written up and ready for test-knitting in the near future (and I hesitate to give ya'll a solid date because, honestly, wedding stuff is greedily hogging a large portion of my time).

For now, I must apologize for my blog-neglect, and hop on over to my favourite knit spot and get to working on that dress!

__________________
¹It's a trifecta, cause I've been cooking up not only the Chauntecler dress, but a couple of other, as yet unnamed, patterns, including another dress and a cabled sweater.

Sawks; Or, the Evidence is Mounting...

First off, thanks to everyone who's given advice on my poor bud Bob. I've been turning him round on alternate days so his bald side gets some sunny D too.
Also, thanks over again for all the wonderful points re: my wedding coif. I think I've come to a decision, which I'll share soon.


Woot! The mail brought me a Knit Picks delivery!

Along with a fancypants pattern keeper, I got a colourful collection of sock dpns.

And now, I have quite a colourful collection of sock yarn whose fate has been altered from "perhaps a pretty wee shawlette" into "socks and all their derivatives".

And, (fingers crossed), I'm just over half way through a second sock of a lovely pair.

Hope to have them to show you in a couple days!

The Riddle of the Interlocking Honeycomb Pattern

Myth: You need good math skills to design yourself a sweater.

Fact: They would certainly help.

I laboured an entire evening trying to figure out a simple geometric colourwork pattern. It took several incarnations, but finally I arrived at the appropriate honeycomb shape.
Subsequently, I have incorporated said laboured-over chart into a sweater I'm currently knitting up, fancifully titled Apiarius.

As of this moment I've gotten up to the arm joins (Apiarius being a bottom-up yoked sweater), and now have only to cross my fingers and hope the honeycomb pattern will line up nicely when all sweater bits meet.

Being the lazy, math-fearing knitter I am, I have laughed in the face of preparedness and scorned the preliminary work of creating an accurate chart as to placement of said honeycomb patterning for the entire yoke section.

This post, it must be added, is implicated in aforementioned preparedness-scorning, and may very well be scorned itself when the knitting gawds get wind of my haughty trot into the wild unknowns that are colourwork yokes.

You'll be able to tell how I've gotten on with this sweater by the number of creative Shakespearean curses I do, or do not, include in my next post.

Til the morrow!

My Button Expedition

Having waited a few weeks for the cross-city bus-tacular journey, I've now just returned from my trip to the sewing/textiles district and have the booty here for display. My poor semi-neglected almost-knit is thisclose to completion, but requires some extra input.

Being the way I am, one choice couldn't be made in the store. I must call on everyone's input, and ask for a hand in selecting which button best complements this yarn.
Also, I love the wee buttons decorating the street signs, seen here:

Incidentally, I needed to photog the various thematic decor sprinkled through the district.
I'm a fan of this colourful addition to the streetscape.


Now, on to those buttons.

From furthest away, moving forward:
1 - plain old semi-transparent white plastic, with a bit of a flower pattern cut on top.
2 - cool shanked yellowish (well, almost sepia-toned) button with Roman numeral clock design
3 - plastic shanked leopard print (closest to what I had originally been thinking of for this knit)
4 - pretty light-coloured shanked wood button with scroll pattern incised on top
5 - opaque white plastic shanked button with neato twistys

As you can probably tell, they're all different sizes. I do believe I can work with them all, though I might be pushing it with the smallest, #1.
The whimsical #2 has a pretty high unique/cool factor, but I only have three of them and I might need for. Well, four might be preferable.
Numbers #4 and #5 are quite pretty, but I wonder if they're too light, and perhaps stand out too much against the purpley yarn?

Thanks in advance for all input! I'm looking forward to this as an autumn knit, so I've a few weeks to make up my mind and complete it.

Today is Tuesday; Or, It's Hot Out, Dude

Here, lemme show you my very ordinary Tuesday.

9:30 am: Morning Glories say hello, but Marigolds wither goodbye. I continue, stubbornly, hopefully, to water them.

10:00 am: I admire the pretty Anglican church across from my bus stop. I've always loved stained glass windows. Maybe some day I'll live in a house that's got some...

10:30 am: At work, with coffee in hand. Already 23°C, feels like 29°. Yowza. For those of you who don't know, I wilt in the heat, and so decided to photog my spontaneously co-operative hair before the humidity makes it go puff.

1:30 pm: Lunchtime! I ingest more caffeine, this time in the form of some Earl Grey tea. I also read more of the Potter book, which is actually a fail because I had meant to have finished re-reading it before I flounced off to watch the movie. I'm at the part where Harry's trying to get the memory off Slughorn.

3:30 pm: I share my break with a couple of rather entertaining sparrows.

5:30 pm: I arrive home, eat dinner, and ponder what to do with about 6 overripe bananas. There's also the issue of the mint that I've dried. Anyone know any good recipes/uses for either? Banana cream pie sounds fun, but what to do with the mint?

9:00 pm: Knit Night! I display part of my work after a few hours in good company and delicious drinks. While a baby knit it might be, I'm knitting for twins, and so it feels a bit unending. That and I've decided to do almost every adorable baby pattern that I've come across. These are the first babies I've gotten to knit for!

10:00 pm: Wee pin lights on in the kitchen mean it's chill time for me.

Stash Diving; Or, What's Lurking in the Deep Dark Depths

...so continues the tale of the Stash Diving Adventures of one Canary Sanctuary - when forced by economic forces unseen into digging for fibrey gold in her own backyard...

Gadzooks, it's been ages since I've even thought about this stash-redux attempt!
But, since there's been some progress, I wanted to give everyone an update re: this particular yarnny re-discovery.
The Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool has been sitting on my coffee table nigh on three months now, resolutely being ignored by meself. My wholehearted attempts to project-focus and actually complete designs has produced a dissatisfaction and reluctance to knit that has only just recently been traced back to this aforementioned wholehearted project-focussing attempt.

But oh, when I got my hands on this other yarn, it was like an illicit affair! I was off and running (or knitting/betraying...procrastinating!?)
While superfluous punctuation may not serve to sufficiently illustrate my enthusiasm on beginning this lanolinic liaison, perhaps this teaser progress photo will.

This is how I spent my lunch today - sitting in the sun, tossing cookie crumbs to the cute sparrows, and getting a knit on this project (which I've happily titled Campaniform.*)

With only two hanks of this yarn I embarked on a chancy and froggingly-frightening mission. Now, I'm within an inch (or two, and - if I'm lucky to have enough yarn - three) of completion!

I now put a call out: does anyone know where a knitter can get herself some small, fuzzy-fabric-covered leopard print buttons? Or ribbon? My own brief interwebs search proved fruitless. It's a rarity indeed for eBay and Etsy to let me down, but my surfings today have failed.

*I can't tell you how much fun I've had with this site.

Pssst - I'm Lazy

What's that about best laid plans? And them oft going awry?
Me and my best laid plans are currently being waylaid by my best laid laziness.
As some of you spotted in my camping post, I've got a new knit and it's on the verge of free publishmentification. Save for the fact that I've ne'er done a cable chart, and am having an issue or two in the translation of my cryptic notekeeping.
The goal is to have it done by the end of July.

We shall see.

Its name is Bonfire Briar.

ps: While I am not lying re: my laziness, I will have to admit that I'm also working on another pattern (or two!!), which, in its colourworky funness, is rather time consuming.

pps: I do believe this post is the winner for the most Firefoxified-red-underlined words (ie: words I've made up just cause I feel like it).