Monday, April 12, 2010

Fibery Frolicks

Choosing the right fiber for a design is often the most challenging (but also exciting part) of the process. Often my choice is dictated by a particular colour and I have to have that yarn without necessarily knowing what it will be become. Other times it is only after playing with a certain fiber that a plan falls into place.

The latter was the case for this beautiful yarn from the Fiber Company. This is their Canopy Yarn in fingering weight (colour Yerba Mate). A luscious blend of baby alpaca, merino and bamboo. Soft doesn't even begin to describe this yarn. It's the kind of yarn you want to rub against your face in ecstasy (unless of course you're allergic to alpaca then definitely not a good idea)! After swatching with this I could see which of my design ideas it would work well for. Progress is being made and I'm very happy with how that one is coming together.

This choice had a lot to do with the colour. I knew I wanted a lace weight yarn and I knew I wanted something with some silk so my first instinct was to visit the Jaggerspun Zephyr at WEBS and this cone of Curry yelled out to me! I snagged it and ran off most satisfied! I love being able to use a cone to knit from, one continuous thread of gold (or tussah silk in this case)! This is destined to become a delicate cardigan in the collection.

Jamieson and Smith's jumper weight yarn.

In this case I did not pick the colours but was asked to put together a design with them. This particular design will be published elsewhere but I still have a lot of these colours left and plan on using them for the collection. As you can see some ends had to be woven in!

Still more choices to be made and playing to be done!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Totally Not Knitting Related!

Hope you're all enjoying a chocolate filled Easter weekend. We kicked it off here with this egg nest cake by Nigella Lawson. No flour but plenty of goo...and topped with mini eggs!
The sun is shining and it's ridiculously warm for the beginning of April...I mean I've even had to apply sunscreen already and attack a mosquito in my bedroom!
Sadly the knitting all went backwards today.....more on that another time!