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Sunshine and Valentines
What a stunningly beautiful February day. The sun is shining like crazy and there is snow piled high on tree branches and fence rails. The birds even look happy. They flit about with joy and a spring in their step. Just 2 more days until Valentines day and the anticipated arrival of our newest little family member. We are just so excited. I’ve spent the last few weeks on custom work for a few of my customers. Becky was looking for a luxury baby gift with a difference. We decided on a hand spun Angora and silk handknit baby shrug and matching hat. I call it Whisper. I searched through…
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Learning to Paint – New Blog
I’m taking the plunge. I want to learn to paint! Spinning, Knitting, Weaving and Dyeing… even Sewing, Quilting and all kinds of designing are the things I just do, like falling off a log, I can do them in my sleep (almost). Been doing them all my life. But Painting! Now that is something I have never done before – ever – and let me tell you, it’s a lot more difficult than it looks. But I am going to do it and I’m keeping track of every step of the journey in this blog Art Apprentice Blog. I am more than slightly overwhelmed and intimidated by it all. When I…
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It’s Winter
Winter Weather It’s often cold in Southern Ontario, Canada in winter and it does snow here but this winter has been a winter to remember. We’ve had lots of days with record breaking low temperature and snowfalls, an ice storm with power outages to tell the grandchildren about and enough snow days to keep the kids really happy. Even though we spent our life savings on propane just to stay warm, and I didn’t really enjoy having my gall bladder removed, I really have enjoyed this winter overall. It’s so pretty to look outside at all that snow. We’ve been feeding the birds and they’re just such a joy to…
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Busy December
As always November and December are proving to be very productive months for knitting. There is just something about Thanksgiving and Christmas that makes me want to just turn out project after project so that everyone on my list gets something handknit. I’ll reserve the photos until after the gift giving has taken place so that I don’t spoil any surprises. For those who are visiting from Interweave, looking for missing Page 34 of the article on shaping sleeve caps. click to zoom, rt click to save and hope this helps 🙂 OK a tiny sneak peak with no names 🙂
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2 New Gift Ideas for Baby
I’ve just added a couple more gift items for baby. I’ve put all of my handspun handknits at really good prices, much lower than I would usually need to ask for a special order. I had a great time knitting these throughout the year and got to do exactly what I wanted and love to do. If I can do that and even recover the price of the yarn I would consider myself a winner and hopefully you would too. That’s what I call a “win win” situation. Hope you enjoy the Handknit Smocked Baby Sweater and Handknit Lace Baby Sweater
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3 New Yarns on Sale at Etsy
I just put up 3 single skeins of yarn on Etsy. Sometimes when I am spinning for a customer or a personal project I will get the first skein a little fine or a bit too thick for the order or I may have a skein left over from a knitting project. These single skeins will appear as only 1 available but you can always custom order most of the handspun yarns in your choice of yarn weights and hand dyed colours. To see these skeins on Etsy: special prices available The Eastport Alpaca in DK weight and natural snowy white colour, 2.1 oz. 132 yds The New Zealand Merino…
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2 New Luxury Baby Gifts for Heirloom Treasures
I’ve just added two new luxury gifts for baby to the shop section. Both are hand knit from hand spun yarns. The pure cashmere dress was inspired by an old Beehive Baby booklet that I used to use for knitting for my own little babies many years ago and the Cashmere and Merino Layette is an original design but was also originally inspired by one of those old booklets from the 60s and 70s. I even had a few of those little books when I was a kid. I use to knit baby things because they didn’t take a lot of yarn. It was fine and gave me lots of…
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Shopping at Diamond Yarns
Ohhhh My what fun I’ve had over the last few days choosing my intitial order for my new account at Diamond yarns. I’ll have so many more yarns to choose from when creating new designs for patterns and also for your custom hand knits. I probably won’t list them all on the web site here but if you want anything from Diamond I’ll do my best to get it for you. Please do check out my Etsy store as there just might be a little more listed there. I can’t always keep them exactly co-ordinated. I’ve ordered several Interchangeable Knitting Needles sets by Knitters Pride and a huge great order…
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A Few of my Works in Progress
I’ve been getting TONS of requests for custom work in the last few months. Part of that is because the Custom Handknit Sweaters page managed to get to the number one position in google for any related search terms. I know that’s a good thing but I just can’t knit that fast 🙂 The Mohair Vest: I had a friend bring me a bag of various mohair yarns from a yard sale and ask me what I could do with them. It was a wonderful challenge because she knows what to wear and always looks so fabulous in everything. There was only enough for a vest so we agreed upon…
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A New Design in Progress Grace
A new design in progress – I guess that would be a DIP, right? Along with the Custom Fit Sweater for Amy Herzog and her team (beta testing) I’ve been working on a few custom orders and a new designs that I will call Grace after my Mom who just passed away last year at this time. Mom was my mentor, my soul mate, my best friend and the one who taught and inspired me to knit and be creative in so many way. She was also my biggest fan and alway gave me so much encouragement. Well, anyway, the new design is Grace. It will be an elegant but casual…
Simply Elegant Timeless Classics – Handspun and Handknit Luxury Heirlooms
