Take a minute

What a busy week it's been! I'm sure everyone else's holidays have been jammed with things too - this year I'm really missing family gatherings though we do have a lovely selection of Christmas cards from friends and family. But the thing that made my holiday stand out was a trip to London! One of my good friends stayed with us for a week over Christmas, and we did some nice touring in Oxford (tea, Pitt Rivers, that good stuff) and then wrapped it up by spending two days in the big city before her flight back home yesterday.
I'm a small-town kid (even though the doctor insists my hometown isn't really that small), and London flat-out has TOO MANY PEOPLE in it. And I've never been pushed so many times in my life! That being said, there are many lovely buildings and things to see, and I'd like to go back with a bit more daylight (winter just doesn't have enough sun in a day) and cram more things in. We got to see the big stuff: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben. We rode the Eye too, and our hotel room had a great view of the Shard. It was also bordered by about six or eight train lines, so that wasn't quite so picturesque! In any case, it was good to finally see the city, and I was glad to share it with a good friend too.
Now that all the holiday bustle is winding down - and big work projects are looming large for January - I have a few days to cram in some yarncraft! The doctor gifted me with a number of knitting-related goodies, and I still have a number of other projects on the go so hopefully we'll get a chance to sit and enjoy a bit of quiet time before it's back to work in 2015!

Happy holidays!

Another long-overdue post, and this one's a short one before I head out to London! For a Canadian, Christmas implies some level of snow, and here there's green grass and blossoming trees (though I hear the unseasonable warmth in central Canada is throwing things off too), so we've had a job of work convincing ourselves it's actually December here! We've had a lovely Christmas though - a friend of mine joined us for a week here, and I made way too much delicious food. Classic holiday.
Yesterday was the Selfish Sweater KAL hosted by Andi Satterlund, and I gleefully cast on her Aiken pattern in a lovely purple-blue aran heather while we watched Star Trek. Pretty much a perfect day right there!
I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday - even if it's going a little differently than usual, I hope you're finding the excellence in wrapping up one year and gearing up for a new one. Happy almost new year :)

Slacker

I won't lie, this last week has been totally nutty! I've been pulled in like ten directions. 'Tis the season, I do believe!
I have about four projects on various needles and hooks (oops, five), and I've been working on cheering up our flat with some handmade decorations as we clearly are starting with nothing - when you move countries, you don't often bring your Christmas decorations...unless you have really special ones but of course I broke my really special one last year. Hmph. ANYway. Thankfully the "dollar" store here (Poundland) has decent stuff so we're working with that and whatever I can speed-crochet. Garlands aplenty!

And of course last weekend we headed to Ireland for the doctor's birthday; we stayed in Belfast for two nights and had an absolutely awesome time! We explored the city, went to their Christmas market (read: German sausages everywhere and an actual pop-up beer hall with full steins of Paulaner beer on tap) and enjoyed the incredible lights in the city centre, went on a day-long Game of Thrones tour of the surrounding area with a tour guide who's an extra on the show (totally awesome!), hit up the Titanic museum (because of course), and had amazing food all weekend. Sweet bonus: we managed to find a pub with actual live music. We sat right beside a trio of musicians (a banjo, a mandolin, and a hand drum) and got to enjoy some excellent Irish beer and excellent Irish music. Even snagged some Irish stew the day we left, on the biggest bap (bun) that I've EVER seen. I know it wasn't my birthday but it almost felt like it! I love our trips.

 I have every intention of getting back to my yarncraft-related posts; in fact, I'm hoping to write my very own pattern for a headband that I've got going right now! For those of you just itching to hear more about knitting, more is indeed on the way!

Hot tea, cold drafts

Sadly I'm still feeling under the weather; we went to Ireland over the weekend and my cold kind of abated temporarily (aside from nose-blowing) but the dryness of our hotel room seemed to make things worse and today I am definitely in slow motion.
So what does one do when laid up with a cold? Apparently put up the double-glazing film in the kitchen window...oh wait, no...that's just me picking odd tasks. Our kitchen is easily the coldest room in the house and I'm hoping the window film will help a little, though there are very obvious drafts coming in at the corner under the counter...not sure what's up there. In any case, I'm almost positive that totally sapped my day's allotment of energy, though it's not quite noon.
I'll post something much more exciting when I'm not at such a low ebb - Ireland is full of lovely sheep and the aran sweaters over there are incredible - but for now, it's chicken soup and pots of tea.

Keeping busy

As usual, I have a few projects on the go, and while I appreciate the zen of knitting and crochet, a lot of the time there are big blocks of stocking stitch. It can be calming but it can also be wicked boring so to pass the time, I usually watch movies or TV (unless there's a particularly good radio station around). So what do I watch?

1. TV series. My favourite show for this is Buffy the Vampire Slayer; I've seen the entire series a few times now and it rewatches very well for me (but I am a chronic rewatcher...anyone who knows me can tell you this). I also rewatch Batman: The Animated Series from time to time, and That 70s Show is a really good one because it's also hilarious and nothing makes time fly like good laughter.

2. Movie series. This covers short AND long series, depending on how you feel and how long you'll be sitting. Harry Potter is a good one, and now that we're a few years in, you can do all three Ironmans, two Thors, two Captain Americas, and so on. Die Hard has five now, that's a gooder. And there's always the super solid Lord of the Rings extended editions, which will give you at least all of your waking hours in one day if you start right when you wake up and stay up longer than usual.

3. Related movies. You can pick any theme you like. Superhero: go Ironman, then Thor, then Captain America, then Ironman 2, then The Avengers....and so on, because they all kind of weave together. Or you can do a Robert Downey Jr. theme, with Sherlocks, Ironmans, and super bonus The Wonder Boys (surprisingly good, despite being a drastic departure from the above theme). Sometimes I'll do old favourites: Labyrinth and Donnie Darko make a good pair.

4. The same movie over and over. Not literally (though I have done this), but I mean Robin Hood, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Robin Hood (Disney). You can do this with Alice in Wonderland, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (...if you're into that), or multiple Sherlock Holmes incarnations.

4. Whatever the heck is on TV at the time. Every now and then, none of the movies will fit the bill. You'll be tired of the old TV sprees. So in that case, you can just throw on a good channel and have at 'er. I usually vote for home and garden networks, or the Food Network. Almost all of their shows can bear sitting through, and sometimes even lame TV is good enough for your attention, but not engrossing enough to distract you from doing a good job and not dropping any stitches.

5. Sports games. For me, this can only be hockey. Maaaaybe football (North American football, not soccer), but only if there's a reason for me to watch - say, the local sports team is having a good season. But we have GameCentre finally, so I can watch all the hockey I can handle, so hooray!

What do you do when you've got a long, steady task ahead? Did I miss any favourites?

Breakthroughs

I've been given the early Christmas gift of a headcold from the doctor, whose coworkers have been passing it amongst themselves - thankfully it's not too bad but it can slow me down for counts and decreases...I'm working on *something* for *someone* that requires a few decrease rows at the end, and then grafting live stitches and something that should've been an easy finish just took me an hour. Well I got it in the end, and as a bonus, suddenly grafting actually made sense to me!
For those of you who are wondering what on earth that might be, grafting refers to essentially sewing live stitches together. This is a useful finish when you want something to look seamless, and it saves the trouble of binding off and then sewing two edges together. However, it can be VERY tricky unless you actually visualize what you're doing in your mind - most of the time I end up with one side looking purled (the little bumps) and one side looking knit (the little vees) instead of BOTH looking knit. Today I had the first attempt: a weird mishmash. Second attempt: purled. Third (and final, no matter what I ended up with): the successful knit! This tutorial at Knitty gave me a hand today, though usually I'm scrolling up and down on the Purl Bee's Kitchener Stitch tutorial, which is also very useful.
In any case...now that I think I've suddenly got it, I'll get to put that to the test when I make a matching....*something*. Geez, gifting is hard when you're also blogging about it ;)

SBS follow-up

On this lovely Monday morning (yes, the two words can go together) with the sun shining and nary a breeze, I wish I had more marvellous news from my Small Business Saturday. While my Etsy shop got some views and generated a wee bit of buzz on Facebook, I didn't end up getting any sales. I thought about this a lot last night and decided to take a few things out of it:

1. Publicity is still pretty important. Now, I understand my network is pretty small and the burden is not on other people to do all my advertising for me, either. This is definitely the most monumental task of a start-up. It seems I still have a lot of work to do in getting word out about my shop.
2. New is new. I'm still an untested brand. This kind of hinges on publicity too, but there's no word of mouth on my products because so far I've pretty much knit for myself and a few other people.
3. Other venues are plentiful. This area has a LOT of craft sales, especially around Christmas. Clearly I don't have enough inventory to set up a table just yet, but it's good to know that I can spend the year building up stock and do more in-person selling in the coming year. Exploring other venues than Etsy might be a better bet!

Regardless, it was worth a shot. I'm looking forward to listing some more items in the shop this week, and my current worksock sweater is nearing completion (I know right? I'm a machine) and is looking so comfy and lovely! Also, now that I know there's lilac tweed...well, I can't resist that action.
Total sidenote: I'm listening to a station out of London that's playing the Johnny Cash cover of "Hurt"...does anyone else still totally goosebump out when this song plays? Trent or Johnny, this song brings out the chills. Best way to start the day is with good music.

Small Business Saturday - the UK edition

So it seems Small Business Saturday was at the end of November for my North American friends but for us in the UK, it's tomorrow! In light of that, and since I've launched my shop and now actually am kind of a small businessperson, I'm offering a little bit of sale!

I'm putting up five of my worksock cardigans for just $60 (plus shipping) apiece! I'll be listing them in a black and cream aran tweed (it's acrylic and wool) but I would so love to try out some other tweeds! For instance, check out this brown. And even better, lilac tweed! So cool.

 

If you just like the sweater style and you like solid colour better, that's always an option too! I love the idea of doing the classic sweater style with an olive green - the red would pop so nicely!
I'll be putting up the listings in my Etsy shop tomorrow so if you're keen to get your own worksock sweater, stop by and support Small Business Saturday!

How to make the most of the trip

Boy, have I had an exciting Wednesday already! Which is something in itself - not all Wednesdays have so much fun in them before noon. Especially not when I have to haul my butt out of bed before 7 to make breakfast for the doctor. However, today involved a trip to the yarn store and that's always a good start. 

This was a special trip, since it is also my run day. Two birds, one trip: I literally ran to the yarn store today. And let me tell you, I didn't really understand how many hills are on that route...until today. Good grief. For a prairie girl, this place is just inclines all over. Sometimes I actually feel like it's all uphill! I'm sure there are downslopes SOMEwhere on my runs, but honestly. 

Anyway. The point was, I went to the yarn store! I'm tasked with making a worksock sweater for my lovely friend Tiffany at Little Mouse on the Prairie and so I had to resupply...but tragedy struck and they didn't have the same colourway that I used! I got a similar one (with more cream in the tweed) so we'll see if it passes muster. In reality, I wanted a yarn much more like the one I bought today than the one I used originally for this sweater, so I think it'll look much more like the first worksock sweater I made, which is warming another friend in Canada.

The gorgeous heathered purple next to that yarn is for the Selfish Sweater KAL hosted by Andi Satterlund - she just announced it and I was only supposed to scope out some yarn, but I couldn't help it. This yarn HAD to be mine. As it happens, I did the last KAL with Andi and she awarded a free pattern to everyone who completed it (which was AWESOME! A lovely cardigan and a free pattern?! Come on); I chose Aiken, a sweater I've had my eye on for some time, and it's one of the patterns she's included in this upcoming KAL! So now I have an excuse to have it jump the queue...which is getting pretty long, haha.

As a little personal hooray for myself, I have finally had the difference between DK and aran yarn made quite plain - they are not quite interchangeable and my own worksock sweater is evidence of that. The cream yarn I used for the edging is definitely DK - it knit up much thinner than the aran of the body and the collar is MUCH too flimsy. But the point is, I snagged some cream coloured aran for the new worksock sweater and it will be a success! High fives all around. 

Because I just can't sit quietly, I finished up a chunky crocheted bandana-style scarf this morning too. I'm thinking it wants fringes so it's not quite ready to go up in the shop, but it's pretty and squishy and chunky and I'll probably wear it if it sticks around for a while ;)

Christmas craft roundup

Well I already vacuumed so I can feel productive today. I know I'm not the only one who does one chore and then sits down at the computer "just for a second." No guilt here - I still have coffee to drink.
In any case, the purpose of my break today was to hunt up some crochet patterns for the holidays. The doctor and I have had some trouble getting our flat to the coziness of our old apartment (seriously, the walls are bare and I have over 1,000 wedding pictures and not a single one has been printed. For shame) and this is our first Christmas away from family and friends in Canada. This place needs to get seasonal in a big way! We already have green curtains in the living room so my job is half done...okay, not quite, but it helps. I'm just looking for some inspiration (yup, via Pinterest) to yarncraft my way to some holiday cheer, and I have a few good leads:

This adorable little wreath from cookiecuttyer. I'm not sure I can get my hands on a foam wreath shape but who knows, this town can be surprisingly resourceful!

There are approximately 1,000 crochet star tutorials and ideas out there, but this one from Jelly Wares looks pretty straightforward and is free - the best part, as always. Etsy has a few for sale too, if you're not into making your own.

Wee Christmas trees by turkisa-turkisa, featured here. There's no words but if you can read a crochet chart you're set. If you go to the original source, I do believe it's not English but sometimes Google Translator comes through...and sometimes it provides many unintentional chuckles.

Calypso's Craft Works featured these two patterns, one of which is Japanese and one of which is Russian. I love the charts; I actually find them less confusing than text, which can be a bit overwhelming. For instance: "Rnd 3: sc around dc from end of rnd 2, (ch 2, In next ch 6 sp work [2 dc, ch 4, sl st in 1st ch, tr, ch 7, sl st in 1st ch, tr, ch 4, sl st in 1st ch, 2 dc] ch 2, sc in next 5 ch sp) repeat around, ending with a sl st in the first sc made." Yeah, that's what I thought. Just pictures, please.

Anyway, there are a few items I thought would be welcome additions around here. I'm also thinking of making a cover for the hideous wall heater we don't use in our living room...nothing says "shabby chic" like a rusted electric heater, I know, but for some reason it's just not doin' it for me. Also on deck, a trip to Poundland (the dollar store...which sounds hilarious. Just me?) where everything actually IS just one pound - take a memo, Canadian dollar stores. They've got Christmas lights, the one thing I'm not skilled enough to DIY. Between the doctor and me, we don't have enough electrician/engineering skills to figure that out - sometimes, it's just OK to buy a few things.

The launch of Christmas

Another Monday rolls around and another weekend is behind us - this one no doubt full of promotional codes and full online shopping carts/baskets, haha. I will admit, I couldn't turn down Yarnspirations' Bernat Super Value sale; 40%, yes please! It even makes the shipping worthwhile. Aside from all the hoopla in stores, the doctor and I headed into town centre for the official switch flipping and fireworks that signal Christmastime here, and it was awesome! We had some mulled wine and mince pies (which do not contain meat, and the filling isn't minced...not sure where the name comes from but they were delish) and after some mumbly talking on a poor soundsystem, suddenly everyone started counting down and at 1, the tree and all the surrounding decorations lit up :) And then fireworks! I am now of the mind that every Christmas season everywhere should start with fireworks.

After which, we went to a pub for supper. As you do.

Aside from that excitement, I did much knitting, as I had hoped. I finished the edging on my worksock sweater and it looks MILES better than the first go-round, so I'm satisfied there. I'm disappointed with the quality of the edging yarn though - and yes I know, I picked pretty much the cheapest yarn but still, Bernat Super Value is much more robust and gave the first worksock sweater much more definition on the collar. This one (Special DK, I believe) just rolls up...I'll actually have to sew it in place if I want it to really sit still.

Also, in this photo you can see the elusive sixth buttonhole, which is now totally extraneous since the collar starts right after the fifth buttonhole. Alas. This is definitely my pilot sweater.

I also cast on for the Tanis Fiber Arts Holiday Knit-along with my lovely Blue Label Fingering; I'm making her Prism Shawl, a nice simple pattern open to whatever embellishments you wish to add. I'm putting in a row of eyelets every time I change colour and I've done one already...hopefully blocking the shawl will settle down the eyelets as right now they look kind of funny. But the yarn is gorgeous, I wish I could knit with it all the time!

Regular-coloured Friday

Well, while the Western world seems to be going wild with shopping lust (my inbox was going insane with deals today), for me it was a pretty normal Friday: work and more work, and some dishes at the end. I'm finally getting pretty close to casting off the edging of my worksock sweater (hopefully I'll get to post some pictures soon!), and the doctor's sweater is eagerly awaiting some attention. Even better, I'll finally get to cast on my Prism Shawl once this cardigan is done :) I don't have a shawl yet and I have a fierce love of gradient colours so this will be a double-win!
And for fun, a little info on the technique that's been slowing me down on this edging: short rows. Now, don't get me wrong, short rows are actually fantastic for shaping - in fact they're my favourite new technique for set-in sleeves. But they just aren't very exciting for building a collar! A short row is just that: a row that you don't knit all the way across. Often they're used for wedge shapes (Bernat has a lovely toque pattern that uses their Roving yarn), and that was what I used them for in my collar. You come to the point at which you wish to turn, and slip the next stitch without knitting it. Then bring the yarn to the front, slip the yarn back, and turn your work. You'll have a loop of yarn around the stitch, and when you're done with the short rows, you'll pick up the loops and knit them with the stitches that they were wrapped around.
With that, it's time to finish up this sweater. I'm rewatching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and movies like this are pretty much perfect for knitting. Happy weekend :)

Thankfulness

I'm doubly out of my depth when it comes to this particular weekend holiday - I'm not American, and I'm actually in a country that doesn't have a Thanksgiving at all. However, I'm of the mind that you can always be thankful and with casual weather reports coming from friends and family in Canada, and the news from Buffalo and other parts of New York, today I'm still so thankful for England's mild winters! The grocery delivery man looked at me like I was crazy when I said we were loving the nice weather - I guess not everyone has my perspective on it! - but since I get to train all winter in just a regular pullover and tights and not three pairs of pants, a balaclava, a toque on top of that (and a scarf), and three shirts, I am thankful for it! It's pretty much perma-fall here; for my Manitoban readers, you'll understand how weird this is to get used to since we have about a week and a half of fall before winter puts the smackdown on.
Just popped a few more items into the shop, so take a trip over there and check it out! Also on my worktable today, my "fly by the seat of my pants" worksock cardigan edging. The dear sweater that is relying on my pattern intuition suffered through one front edging that looked miserable once it was all done up, so of course it was removed and frogged, and I'll be giving it another go today. A good way to spend another cloudy day!

A thought on jobs

I'm pretty new to the whole self-employed thing, and let's be honest, it's not even my full-time job. While saving money for our wedding, I worked two jobs for about seven months and that seems to have stuck; I always have fingers in too many pies. It's safe to say that if I could be hired to quote old Simpsons episodes and listen to rock music, I'd be raking it in, but everyone knows it's the greatest challenge of adulthood to find a job you love. ANY job - motherhood included of course - presents the wildest demands at some point, and you find yourself wondering just how you got saddled with this mess. Finding a happy place in employment is an ongoing mission of mine, and while I was wedding planning I stumbled across A Practical Wedding, which has so much more than just wedding discussions. This blog post by their founder pretty much nails it; Meg is a great writer and I often find her advice inspiring and encouraging, partially because she pulls no punches and is very honest.
I'm going to keep this post in mind as I frog the edging on a sweater today. I do love what I do, and it's a wonderful thing that I get to yarncraft every day - whether it's for the shop or just for me and the doctor :)

NEW listings

Happy news, all! I have finally put some goodies on my virtual shelves! Two new cowls are up in my shop on Etsy, which you can find right here. I am so excited to finally launch this! It's a small start, but I'm going to be following up regularly with some new pieces so there's more to come!
The first listing is the lovely brown and variegated cowl I posted about last week; it's squishy and comfy and I love the colours together! I'm casting off a creamy white version that'll be up in the shop soon too.
The second listing is a credit to the doctor: a Magic: the Gathering inspired cowl. I love the mana symbols in MTG and thought working them into some more sophisticated pieces would be a good way to show off MTG accessories without being tacky - you don't always want your MTG gear to be so flashy, but you still might want to work it into your wardrobe. Or you just love green and trees, as I do.
Remember when you're checking out the shop, if you've got a custom idea you think we could work on together, shoot me a message! I love getting creative with the yarn :) And enjoy my modeling...clearly I missed my calling.

Knits and purls

Our trip to Stonehenge yesterday was beautiful! Although the doctor is new at this British driving thing, he picked it up surprisingly quickly and we had a nice little drive down to the site. It rained on and off (of course) but as we got to the stones, the sun dipped below the cloud bank and lit up Stonehenge so beautifully, it was amazing!
I got to put down a few rows but sadly it gets dark very quickly now that it's almost winter solstice! Today will be a better day for knitting since we've got Lord of the Rings (the extended editions) going and no plans to leave. I'm hoping to finally cast on for the Tanis Fibre Arts Holiday Knit-Along - I've had the yarn kit for the Four Seasons spring toque for a long time and I'm feeling more like a shawl than a toque so the Prism Shawl it is :)
Keep your eye on the Single Double Treble Etsy shop for some new items on the shelves tomorrow! What better way to start a week than with some cozy knits?

Field trip!

My knitting is going to love this: today we're renting a car and heading off to Stonehenge! At least two hours' unbroken knitting means that I'll be able to put some mileage on my second cowl - cream Cascade Eco with the miscellaneous fancy yarn. I sewed on the buttons for the brown cowl yesterday so it just needs a good blocking. I love how the cream one is coming together already; the blues and turquoise look fantastic against the cream background.
The Magic: The Gathering cowls I blocked last week are pretty much ready to go so I'm looking forward to posting them in the shop!

Roving

No longer just a yarn, roving is what I'm doing for the few days a good friend is visiting from Canada! I get a chance to roam around the city a little more and go for more pub food too. We all need a little more sausage and mash in our lives, let's be real. Also, my favourite pub has mulled cider now, and that is a beautiful thing. Today my quest for a winter jacket continues - I couldn't fit mine in my luggage when I moved and it turns out I need something a little thicker than my bargain leather jacket.
On our adventures for the next few days, I'm hoping to come across some buttons for the cowl I finished up day before yesterday - it's a beautifully cozy mishmash of soft Cascade Eco and miscellaneous sparkly and shiny yarns and I'm really looking forward to putting another one together!

Ribbit

I set myself to frogging a sweater yesterday, and that sounds sad and all but this particular sweater has been waiting for frogging for at least a year and a half. Probably longer. For those of you going, you did what?! "frogging" your knitting just means you undo it. I've been told it's called "frogging" because it makes a ribbit sound as you pull up the stitches. This yarn (Cascade Eco, so soft and lovely) is a little too sticky for that - as I pulled the knitting apart, the fibres tended to bind a little bit. There was some pulling, but no name-calling - it's not that sticky. So the yarn on the left and right is from the sweater (which was knit with the wrong size needles and ended up being twice as wide...oops), and the lovely shiny exciting stuff in the middle is some fantastic novelty yarn I've had for three or four years. I haven't had the heart to break into it just yet but I think it's time. I think these yarns are going to be fabulous friends in a new cowl.
On a slightly unrelated note, I get my groceries delivered here; it's a great option for me since we don't have a car and I loathe pack-muling loads of groceries around. I've done it before, and it's brutal. Anyway, I order them online and they show up, it's lovely. Except for when I ended up with whole shrimp for our pad thai. Let's be clear: these are cooked, but full-bodied shrimp. Eyes, legs, the whole thing. Honestly, I almost considered getting my husband (aka the doctor) to pick up shrimp from the store on his way home so I didn't have to deal with the scary nightmare bag of bodies on my counter. But I put my big girl pants on and dismembered 0.3 kg of shrimp and was able to show off a pile of body parts when the doctor got home. I know he was proud.

The inaugural

It's a rainy morning in England, becoming a more common sight (for me) as the weather cools down ever so slowly. Since right now in Manitoba it's snowy, windy, and somewhere around -25 Celsius with the windchill, I think some rain is alright.
This blog is the result of a few things: first and foremost, I'm finally able to devote more time to yarncraft, which means I'm actually going to be stocking my poor lonely Etsy shop, Single Double Treble knit and crochet. It's been waiting a long time for this! Second, I've been told my family sometimes likes to know what I'm up to - as they're in Canada and I'm not, I'll save some postage.
Because this is my first post, I'll give myself a little Q&A session.

Q: Why yarncraft?
A: To be cheeky, why not yarncraft? But mostly because I've always enjoyed artistic creation - I've been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil, and trying to sew ever since my mom would trust me with a needle. My sewing has never taken off, but creating with yarn appealed to me despite my initial problems with finding the right gauge. Anyone who's ever crocheted knows that if your hook squeaks while going through the stitch, it's TOO TIGHT! My grandma tried for hours to correct my technique but I still kept producing trapezoids instead of rectangles and squares. I shelved the hobby for a few years but came back to it in high school when I received my grandma's yarn stash after she passed away. A labour-intensive, partially finished afghan of the provincial flowers is still patiently waiting for me while I knit sweaters, toques, and other winter things.
Q: Got a favourite yarn?
A: Usually I'm an equal opportunity yarncrafter, but I will say that anything with a colour gradient is my favourite. I love James C. Brett's Marble Chunky - it's a super quick knit and the striping is tons of fun. It's also pretty cuddly. The Fibre Company's Acadia is one of my favourites for feel, it's so soft and the coloured flecks make a nice contrast. One of my favourite standbys is Bernat Satin - there's a ton of colours, the yarn really is pretty satiny, and it's affordable, which is currently one of my top criteria for choosing yarn. Coming from North America where Bernat is more prevalent than here in the UK, I'd say it has been one of my go-to yarns in the past. Maybe not as high-end as some of the fun fibers, but it's pretty hardy.
Q: OK, so what about hooks and needles?
A: I'm at a bit of a crossroads with this one. I prefer wood (for both) because it's comfortable to hold and the yarn moves easily across it. However, I do have some decent metal needles, and in a few cases my wooden ones have been too smooth and my yarn has fallen right off - this was a problem when I was doing some cables on my lovely Marion cardigan (a pattern by Andi Satterlund). On the other hand, while plastic needles are almost always the cheapest in the store, the circulars I have aren't very good quality (the join between cable and needle has a gap and keeps pulling and catching the yarn), and I've broken crochet hooks before (yes, more than once).
Q: Favourite project?
A: So far, that's likely been my first worksock cardigan, currently residing in Canada. It's too big on me but it's comfy, durable (Bernat Super Saver), and it was born out of inspiration by another cardigan I saw on my way to work one day. I've tried to make another one using top-down construction (the first pattern was all separate pieces) and haven't had the same kind of success, but I'll give it another go when I get some more grey marl. You can never have enough comfy cardigans.
I'll give an honourable mention to my Bernat Temperature KAL scarf from 2013 - with the excessively cold winter last year, once that scarf was finished, it was probably about six feet long - long enough for me to wrap it around my head, across my face, and around my neck. It is hands down the most efficient piece of knitwear I own, and it kept me warm for the half-hour walks to and from work in -30 windchill...or colder.

Maybe you're not riveted by yarncraft discussions (I know my husband isn't), but I promise I'll diverge from time to time. Don't forget, some of these yarncraft discussions will be about new items in my shop! And it's always good to have an inside track on big comfy scarves.