fo: Northman Mittens, and Some Blathering

Ye Gods!  Has this last 6 months been a major learning curve.  Series of learning cliffs.  Whatever it was, it was certainly busy!  I forgot how hectic Christmas season + Retail can be, and I barely made it though it intact - the only thing that kept me going was my wonderful employee N and the promise of 3 full days off over Christmas.

But made it through I did, and while I know January will still be busy, I might actually be able to breath!  ...maybe.

Anywho, there has been a PLETHORA of knitting and crocheting going on, and I'm going to try to bang out a few posts about that before 2017 - need to bolster my shoddy posting numbers at least a bit!  Also, it's killing me, not being able to blog.  Or read blogs.  I miss you guys!

Okay, first (and recent favourite!) project to share is my Northman Mittens.  Guys, this project basically reinforced that colourwork is probably my most favourite knitting technique!  It's so fun, and feels quick because all you want to do is just one more round or 12 to see the pattern emerging!

Pattern: Northman Mittens, by David Schultz
Ravelry project page
Yarn: Outer mitten - Ístex Lettlopi in Fawn and White; Liner mitten - Drops Alpaca in Light Green
Needles: 3.25 mm
Mods: Raised thumb by doing 4 additional rows after gusset increases before separating out the thumb stitches; removed 4 rows from finger section.  Did same mod for the liner mitten, and added more length to the finger section from what pattern suggests (they would've been too short).

These mittens are just what I needed.  I lost my old Rasta mittens and my hands were getting cold, and guys, I swear this pattern stalked and seduced me.  Everytime I went onto Ravelry - there it was.  Three people came into the shop and pointed it out.  One person came in and showed me pictures of their pair.  It just had to happen.

They took me a little over a month and a half to knit (Rav tells me Oct 5 to Nov 28), which is pretty good considering I was pulling 10-14 hour days, 6-7 days a week, including teaching way too many classes and the knitting that goes along with that!  lol

The top of this mitten demonstrates colour dominance really well.  Colour dominance is where one colour stands out more over the other, and happens because one strand in stranded colourwork has to go a wee bit further than the other in the back of the work.  Usually the strand that travels along the bottom of the row (aka the one held in the left hand of the two-handed colourwork technique) will be more dominant.  In this mitten, I let the white be the dominant colour...except on the one row at the top of the left mitten, when I obviously swapped hands and didn't realize it until the mittens were finished.  You can see how there's one row where the fawn shade stands out more than the white.  Oh well, it was a good teaching moment for my colourwork class.  <3

I LOVED working with the Lettlopi yarn.  I've had a huge crush on it for ages, and one evening I broke and started the project.  The outer mitts just flew off the needles, and the pattern managed to seduce my entire advanced colourwork class when I was discussing colour dominance with them.  They've got me half convinced to run a class on the pattern!  Sneaky sneaky pattern.

Of course, these mitts are also lined, which both adds SO MUCH to the warmth factor, and also adds a soft layer between the itchy Icelandic yarn and my skin.  I used Drops Alpaca, and I'm blown away by the results.  They kept my hands nice and toasty warm when Whitehorse weather dipped into the -35C range! Plus when I brush the snow off my car and scrape the windshields, these mitts wind up COVERED in snow, but despite my steering wheel getting soaked as the car warms up, my hands stay dry and warm.  THIS is why we wear wool, guys.  :)


Good night folks!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, or whatever you celebrate this holiday season!  If you don't celebrate anything, well, sorry that you have to deal with us crazies.  :D  <3

fo: Phoney Costume!

I have a good friend who comes to visit me in the shop fairly often.  For a while, when she was unemployed, she'd come sit on my shop couch and crochet in the afternoons.  She's a hilarious woman and I'm so glad to have met her.

So when she left her phone at the store yesterday (again!), of course I had to yarn bomb it!  I'd planned to granny square it to within an inch of it's life, but did this instead.

Does it look like a polar bear?  That was the intention, but when I added little french knot eyes, it also looked like a screaming ghost.  Considering that it's October, either one could work!

She got a kick out of it, regardless.  Granted, it took longer to make this thing up than I'd planned, so she caught me while I was trying to finish the bottom piece.  She hung around to crochet for a bit though, so I was able to finish it.

No there's no pattern, I just made it up as I went.  I love being able to do that with crochet. :D

Admit it, you now want to yarn bomb someone's phone, don't you! 

An Update on Yarn Shop Ownership

Holy Hannah guys, apparently running a yarn shop is a life-consuming business!  I now mentally roll my eyes a tiny bit when I hear people talk about me "living the dream" and how "it must be so amazing to be able to knit at work if you want to".

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Apparently 12 hour work days AT LEAST 6 days a week (and I try to enforce one day off a week because I've been through Grad School, I know how easy it is to burn out) and the only knitting time you take is in sacrifice of things like "laundry" and "making a real meal".  And when you find time to knit?  It'll probably be consumed by sample/commission/repair work - forget about your own projects.

Short Notice baby sweater by Taiga Hillard Designs, knit using Diamond Luxury Simpatico yarn.  LOVE how this turned out - the yarn was pretty and the sweater knits up in no-time flat.  Seriously, if you need a baby gift on short notice, this is a good choice in pattern! 

This probably sounds like complaining.  It's really not.  I knew exactly what I was getting into when I jumped into this new career because I'm a scientist and I totally did my research.  But I do have to laugh at those comments above because it's obvious that they hadn't.  That's okay though - it is a dream to many people and I certainly don't want to burst it.  (Except...I sort of did to you folks...erm...)

Aspyn Hat by Melissa Schaschwary, knit out of ...well you can see.  Fun knit, though those massive cables looked like garbage for the first few repeats.  The yarn is SO SOFT AND SO TWEEDY, I'm in love.  Honkin' big pompom (the photo doesn't do it justice) was added to help pull down the hat so it's more slouch and less cone-head.  Those big cables be stiff!  Also, make sure you use MUCH smaller needles for the brim, because I made a mistake and used 4.5 mm instead of 4.0 mm, and it wasn't enough - WASN'T ENOUGH.

But anyways, I will say that I was a little unprepared about how consuming this would be.  I've been wanting to write blog posts for a while now, but I have no energy to do anything at the end of the day.  The only reason I'm writing this one is because I'm forcing myself to, because dammit I wanna blog!

I also wanna go for a run, but between a few ginormous orders at the shop and evening events every day this week, that's totally not happening.

Entrelac Cowl from a not so great pattern (I had to rewrite it and I've never knit entrelac before).  This deserves a post all on it's own because I'm THAT DAMN PROUD OF IT, but alas that probably won't happen. Knit using Noro Kureyon yarn (2 balls of it) and in the round, I learned how to knit backwards (i.e. knitting stockinette without turning to do purl rows) to speed up the process.  I'm plotting to do an entrelac class because there's just so much to learn from this technique!  :D 

But don't you worry about me (as uh, all my friends seem to be doing if the amount of assistance they're offering is any clue). Part of the reason I'm working so hard is that I'm trying to get everything in place to make my life much easier.  It's been a learning curve (HA - more like a series of vertical learning cliffs!), but it's getting better all of the time.  The store is nearly where I'd hoped to have it months ago, and I'll be giving you a little tour soon.  And I'm getting some creative outlet in the samples I'm making up - many of them shown here in this post.

Fell in LOVE with kureyon while knitting this.  Lovely and soft with beautiful colour ranges, and the finished project has such heft that it stands up nicely on it's own.  What a great cowl for keeping your neck and face warm for the winter!  May need to steal this for the really cold winter days that are coming way too soon (seriously, I'm scraping the windshield almost daily now).

The very best part though?  I love what I do, every single day.  Oh sure, there's some trying bits - but there's nothing like seeing a person's face when the light-bulb moment happens when they figure out a new stitch, or assisting a new knitter find their first project, or fixing a problem that's stumped someone (and bonus if they learn how to fix it themselves!).

Alpaca mittens I knit on commission for a customer who needed some help.  Well, I say commission, but these took so long to get done that I did the work for free.  They turned out so lovely though, and beyond soft! that it was a joy to knit.  <3  No pattern - I just made it up as I went.  The yarn was a challenge since it was hand-spun locally raised alpaca, and the yarn went from fingering to bulky and back to fingering through the entire ball of yarn.  Progressively.  ANNOYING.  But they turned out so cute, despite being reknit ...more times than I want to count, and the fingertips reknit 4 times (no exaggeration!) the last night alone.  ARGH next time I follow a pattern!  I couldn't stop putting them on though, so I'd call that a winner!

This is a hard career I've taken on - but it's one that I'm loving, despite all of the challenges (or likely because of them).  And while I'd caution anyone else looking to do it to put their research in and understand what they're getting in for (seriously guys - this job is all about customer service!), I'd sing the praises of this career to anyone wanting to tackle this challenge.

Just please don't open another one in Whitehorse - I think we have all the yarn shops we can handle with the two of us.  :)

fo: Spotted Cardigan!

For some reason, despite having WAY less free time now that I run a shop than when I had a government desk job, I've been sewing a ton more.  Granted, not much knitting, but I've been bitten by the sewing bug hard.  Probably because I want to up my wardrobe now that I'm working a very public position in a creative field.  That and I've sworn to never wear blue jeans in the shop while open; that's sort of forcing me to rethink my wardrobe.

Anyways, all that blather is basically to say that I sewed a top.  :D

Actually, I sewed most of the top about 2 years ago, but only just finished it this weekend.  All that was needed was the neckband and hems.  Yeah, I'm not sure why it took me this long either.

ESPECIALLY SINCE IT'S SO CUTE.

Long-time readers who followed me over from my old blog might recognize this (though I am wearing it differently).  I sewed this cardigan up back in January 2012 in a heavier-weight light grey fabric.  I have no idea where that cardi went, but I'd received this exact yarn from Stacie in late 2011/early 2012 to duplicate her spotted version of this cardi.  Erm, I'm a little late, but glad that I finally got it done!  This is going to be a great light-weight addition to my wardrobe.  :)

Pattern: McCall's 6408
Fabric: Stretch jersey knit burnout (rayon/polyester)
Size: Small?  That's what my Pattern Review post claims.  This cardigan ran really big, and I believe I cut a small and graded out at the hips.  Despite the fact that my body measurements from 4.5 years ago placed me in the L to XL category.  Oh Big 4 patterns, why you so ease-y.
Mods: No idea.  I just cut out from the pattern I traced out way back when.  Oh, but I did hack off the sleeves at about 3/4 length and finished them with a strip of fabric sewn on.  And I didn't hem it because I'm not sure how to do it without ruining the drape, and it's curling in a cute way anyways.

The fabric is a little thin, and I find that it bunches over my butt when I tie it in the front.  I love it tied in the back though - It works really well with both my favourite little navy dress (which I so have to duplicate in a black fabric, like, NOW) as well as over my favourite teal pants and black tee.  It's a bit of a bolder print than I'd go for now-a-days, but it is a lot of fun!

Yep, pretty happy about it!  Don't mind the crummy photos though - I snapped them quickly before opening the shop this morning (hense the crummy light).

Have you ever finished a long-planned or half-sewn project that's been sitting around ready to be completed, and wondered why the heck you waited so long?

Multi-Post: Canada Day, a Hummingbird Skirt, and a Dream Wardrobe

Okay friends, I'm going to mash 3 topics into this blog post, because I have a ton of post ideas and very little time to write right now.  BTW, owning a store?  Simultaneously epically awesome and completely exhausting!  I love it.  :)

Topic 1: Canada Day!

HAPPY (belated) CANADA DAY!!!  And to you folks in the States, HAPPY (early) INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

I reduced the shop hours on Friday so I could go watch the parade in town, and I do not regret it for a moment!  The parade was a ton of fun, and I went a little crazy waving and cheering at everything and everyone with my wee little flag.  My favourite float was this one:

It's hard to tell at first, but it's a little glass-blowing studio!  We've had one open up in town this summer, and I'm so impressed they got a float going for the parade!  The folks on the float pretended to repeatedly heat and blow "glass" (aka balloons and umbrellas) and a few people walked along side, blowing more "glass" and giving out candy.  I'm stoked to go do one of their glass-blowing classes - clever buggers also have a "date night" package, which is awesome!

I might've gotten into the spirit (though I didn't think of a float - NEXT YEAR!!!!) and was up until 2 am the night before (/that morning) knitting up an ugly colourwork hat for a Canada Day display.  Don't look to closely at it, the colourwork is atrocious.  But it did the job, and looked pretty good surrounded by all the red and white Canadian-made product and string I could find!

Topic 2: Hummingbird Skirt

Holy crap I sewed a skirt!

Haha I've been missing my poor sewing room lately, and I've gotten an itch to sew that was getting unbearable.  After closing up the shop at 4 on Canada Day, I came home to have some quiet me time (I'm an introvert - though granted a socially-inclined introvert.  I've been needing some me-time to recharge after the last two crazy weeks).  I'd planned to sit and work on a store sample and watch a movie, but the sewing room - she called!  I wanted a quick project and, needing a skirt desperately in my wardrobe, I pulled out the pieces of a navy Hummingbird Skirt (by Cake Patterns) that I'd cut out literally years ago.

I put on my favourite audiobook and proceeded to sew for the next few hours.  Ah bliss.  Look at those pockets!  I sewed them wrong at first and swore a lot while ripping them out, but otherwise everything went smoothly.

Hey look, straight side seam!  I can't remember what size I cut (I'm assuming a size 45" - based on how this fits across my hips and the size range), but I did absolutely no alterations and the fit is pretty spot on.  Granted, I'm not entirely certain how a skirt should fit, but it's pretty comfy.  It might be a little snug across the hips, but seems fine.  I'd probably add an inch or so length next time though.  I'm actually sort of happy with this length, but I don't normally wear shorts and most dresses I wear are closer to knee length.

This is the best invisible zipper I've ever done!  It really is invisible - there's just some weird shadows happening in the picture above.  And some wrinkles and various fluff that accumulates in a yarn shop - what can I say, I finished it the night before and promptly test run it at work the next day.

Don't ask me what the fabric is - some sort of suiting that feels a bit wooly, but definitely has a poly-content.  It was part of a box of fabric sent to me from a friend, and I'm glad to get more use out of it.  :) 

So I definitely need several more of these!  I think they're going to be a wardrobe staple, that's for sure.  :)

Topic 3: Dream Wardrobe

During MMMay'16 (erm - things got a little insane and I never got photos taken of outfits the last week or so of May, though I did stick with Me-Makes.  After hearing about the shop, I hope you now understand why), I won one of Zoe's giveaways!  It was a fun little 'go to the Fabric Godmother website and suggest a pattern you think they need to have on their site (mine was Cake Pattern's Tiramisu, btw - I do love me some Cake!), and I was so lucky to win one month of Fabric Godmother's Dream Wardrobe!  It was pretty cool, actually; Josie contacted me with a consultation document that I had to fill out, describing my colouring, my personal style, likes and dislikes, etc, and then she chose a pattern and fabric she thought would suit me.  I received her package last week, and this is what she sent:

It's perfect!  I love the simple but fun fabric, and I've been eyeing up Darling Ranges for years now!  This was definitely a good experience, and I'll probably recommend this service to family members back home who want to send me something special for birthdays or Christmas's. 

Itch to sew...RISING!

Exciting New: Now Live!

Guys, I just bought a lot of yarn.  Like...a lot.  As in, an entire store's worth of yarn.

THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS!  I'm now the proud owner of the Itsy-Bitsy Yarn Store in Whitehorse, Yukon!

That is totally the face of a serious and experienced shop owner, right there.  

I officially took over the business this morning, and opened the doors to chaos and confusion as the former owner ran out the door to catch her flight about 3 seconds after we signed all the final documents, and I was left with a float all over the coffee table, paperwork all over the couch, yarn strewn everywhere, a crowd of tourists pushing to get in, and no debit/credit machine to be found.  It was a glorious!

Luckily I've been actually working in the store all week so I wasn't completely in the dark, and everyone were so patient and understanding.  I even charmed a slightly grumpy lady from Chicago, who left the shop smiling despite the hassle of not being able to accept credit cards.  GO ME!

How did this happen, you ask?  Well, back in February, I was facing my government job running out in June and trying to decide if I should apply for more jobs I'm capable and very competent for but not necessarily qualified for or retraining.  (As it turns out, there's just not a demand for less-experienced geos who aren't willing to relocate.)  Then an email from the LYS owners landed in my email.  And there might've been some hyperventilating after reading that they were looking for a buyer, because YES OMG YES.  A VERY immediate response, a whole whack of meetings, and months and months of business plan writing and some last minute panicking yielded this!

Guys, it's been SO HARD to keep this under wraps, and it's entirely the reason behind all of the 'ZOMG SO BUSY' comments here and there.  Holding down a full-time and very mentally exhausting job while also trying to plan for purchasing a business is HARD holy cow.  I've nearly spilled the beans so many times, but it's been a bit tenuous and uncertain and I didn't want to jinx it!

Don't worry, this won't become a store blog.  I'll be posting just as irregularly as usual about all the stuff I make (and I've really got to get some rock posts up here - the title is starting to become false-advertising), they just might host better lit pictures within the shop, and possibly some comments about being a store owner.  

I will be starting up a separate store blog though (still hammering out what I want it to be), but I'll let you know when that goes live in case you want to follow along. 

'

I'm so excited about this adventure.  I've wanted something like this since I was a kid, but never thought it could become a reality! It's only starting to sink in that it's real, and while the panic I sort of expected is present, I feel so much at home at the store and like it's exactly where I'm supposed to be.

Granted, that doesn't mean I'm not feeling a little crazy right now!

Look what Sophie, the former owner left me!  (She's the one for whom I made the little going-away gift.) She said she got it when they first opened up in their original 138 sq foot location (can't really get more itsy-bitsy than that) as a blessing for the shop, and she decided to pass it on to me to keep up the blessing. That little banner is hanging up on the tiny storage closet behind a screen, and it's going to stay there for as long as I'm in that space! Isn't it lovely?

Anyways, I'm not sure how to end this. My heart is so full right now, and I feel so thankful to have this opportunity. I'm looking forward to the hard work it's going to take to keep this adorable little shop going, and I can't wait to give back to the community like Sophie and her husband did before me.

Wish me luck, folks! I'm going to need it.

That Personalized Touch

I love the fact that I can sew, that I've developed the kind of skills where I can put a personalized touch on a gift relatively quickly if needed.

A good friend of mine is leaving the territory on Monday, and I put together a little gift basket for her.  But it was feeling pretty impersonal, despite finding a few of her favourite treats and adding a thermos that I knew she'd probably use (and probably lose, but that's alright).

So last night I whipped up a little knitting project bag out of a fabric I know she'll love...in about 20 minutes.  And it only took that long because I had to thread the drawstring and couldn't find the one safety pin I've managed to keep from the pack of 50 I bought a while back (like hair clips, apparently I only get to keep one of those no matter how many I buy, and that one becomes Precious and desperately coveted).

Now the little gift is absolutely perfect, and I'm happy to send her off with a little something made from my own hands, even if I'm not happy to see her go.

I'm so thankful for the skills I've learned over the years, precisely for moments like this.  Do you ever add a little personalized touch to your gifts?

Pending: Exciting News...

I haven't been around here much lately - either blogging nor commenting, but there's a pretty exciting reason for that.  Which I'm not going to tell you yet because I'm a cruel woman, and also not a little bit afraid of jinxing myself.

It's a big change in my life though, and I'm equal parts excited and terrified.  Some of you may know (and if you do, please ssshhh!  :D), but I promise to tell you about it on Monday when it's official!

Oh man, this is a cruel post.  I probably shouldn't post it, but it's my blog and I can tease if I want to!

In other news, I'm really looking forward to having some time to focus on projects again (both knitting and sewing - especially in my newly reorganized sewing room!).  Things can't calm down soon enough.  <3

I hope the rest of your week is calmer than mine!

Adventuring in Haines (and a good old garage sale find)

I adore Haines, Alaska - it's quickly becoming one of my favourite places.  Between the gorgeous drive (you can see part of the scenery and some of the town in this post; ETA: way to forget the link, Heather), the adorable town, and the friendly people, I'd probably happily move there!  If I could find a job.  And if it weren't another country.  Though a large chunk of the Yukon agree that Haines and Skagway and other nearby towns might as well be part of the Yukon - we're basically the same people, so we might have to plot stealing those areas back or something. 

Don't worry folks, we'll let you keep your flag - you're obviously fond of it if the presence of one on every single house is anything to go by.  We'll just stick a leaf on it or something!  ;)

(I am just kidding - please don't take this as a serious plot to invade or anything!  Though if you're not using those towns, we'll happy trade you them for some poutine and a Zamboni or something.)

Anyways, as you can probably guess, I had a good time in Haines this past weekend.  We went down for the Haines Beerfest (my first time going!) and had a blast.  The weather was extremely warm and I killed my ankles and feet by walking all over town in flip flops, but the beer was good and I made lots of friends by sharing my ginormous bag of popcorn with everyone.

BTW, three separate people stated "you must be Canadian" after I offered them popcorn.  Weird.

What does this have to do with "Things I Make"?  Well, not a lot.  Unless you count this fantastic find I stumbled across at a garage sale there.

It's a Singer 99K in pretty good condition!  The shellac is starting to peel, but she appears to run well and the lightbulb works.  I haven't actually tried sewing with her yet, since I need to find some time somewhere to give her a good cleaning and probably not a small amount of oil.  Not bad for $20 USD (probably about $26 or so CAD)!

I'm pretty stoked though.  Poor...everyone in Haines.  I crowed about my find to absolutely everyone who made the mistake of making eye contact with me! 

 

 

It came with some goodies under the machine.  I'm pretty sure all of those weird feet are rufflers.  Who ever used to own her must've been a serious ruffle-addict!

There was also some buttonhole templates, but sadly no buttonholer.  I'm going to see if I can't find one for this machine - though my Kenmore does buttonholes just fine.  Maybe I'll track down some other feet for it too.

Pretty sweet find, eh?  I need to figure out a name for her soon.  Any suggestions?