Showing posts with label Yarn Clubs. Show all posts

A Catch Up Post

I'm in need of a quick catch-up post on the happenings going on around here...

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I took part in another swap on Ravelry just before the school holidays.  It was a 'Small Things Swap' - minimum of 50g yarn, pattern to suit and small gift to go with it.

Here's what I sent off to my swappee, Kathryn:

65g of Spud & Chloe Fine in Anemone; a set of penguin buttons from Buttons by Benji; a bag of Wonka Fruit Tingles; a Knitter's Sticky Notepad from Vintage Purls; a project bag quickly whipped up by me; and I gifted the Kenna Button Top pattern through Ravelry.

And here's what I received from my swapper, Deborah:

50g of Naturally Waikiwi 4ply Prints in Khaki; an 'A' shaped notepad and pen for me; an iron-on applique and matching buttons for each of the girls and also for bubs; and I was gifted the Lacy Leaves Baby Hat & Booties pattern.

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As we're nearing the middle of the next month, I'm expecting my next yarn club installments in the next week or two, so here's what came in last month's packages:

From Vintage Purls:
Photo borrowed from someone else's stash (as I didn't take one myself before eating the goodies)
100g VP sock yarn in colourway Mariana; Anchor Me sock pattern to suit; box of Pebbles (sort of a Cadbury version of M&Ms); silk zipped purse; little yarn monster (mine is all white with blue - I think - shorts); and the mandatory 'VP Sock Yarn Club Winter 2012' badge.

From Red Riding Hood Yarns (I chose to go with the boy's club this time as I figured that my big girls can wear any colours and I have a lot of girly colours already!):
Photo borrowed from the RRHY FaceBook photo album (yet another lack of photo from me before eating!)
200g (total) RRHY "Belle" 8ply superwash - 100g in Brown, 50g each in light and dark green; Leaf Hat & Mittens pattern by Sheryl Greenfield to suit (I also got the Cupcake Hat & Mittens pattern as you can choose to pay a little extra to receive both the girls' and boys' patterns); set of picinic-themed stitch markers from Angel Inspired; and a yummy chocolate Picinic bar.

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There's two KALs happening on Ravelry that I really want to take part in.  One is for Jodulbug yarn and the other is for Olive & Emma yarn (both of which I have yarn and projects ready for). 

But as I committed myself to that scarf, I haven't been able to join in any KALs yet.  Though for the last two weeks (the school holidays, where I've had a bit more home time/knitting time) I have forced a monogamous relationship with it, which has really paid off...

I've gone from this:
Just over 1 1/2 pattern repeats (each repeat being 64 rows of 192 stitches!)

to this:
Just about 7 1/2 pattern repeats (I timed myself and the fastest I could do a row was 5mins - you figure out how many hours I've spent on it so far!)

...in just under two weeks.

The plan is to knit until I run out of yarn. The pattern says to do 9 repeats in total which I might pass by half a repeat.

Fortunately for me, both KALs are running until the end of August so I should still have time to join in once I finish the scarf.  Though, Jo (from Jodulbug Creations) is doing a spot prize draw this week for any project entered in the Jodulbug yarn KAL (whether finished or just started) so I was thinking I might just cast on her yarn tonight being that close to finishing the scarf anyway...
(once I pass the 8th repeat - I was 4 rows away from it this morning!)

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I've had to buy some new clothes in the last two weeks.  I'm at that point where all my tops are just a little too short to cover the 'bump' (I usually wear low-cut jeans/pants so they sit under my tum and saves on buying maternity bottoms), which doesn't matter when you're at home but can be embarrassing when going out!  I'm just glad that modern fashion is all long tops now and stretchy ones too as it's a lot cheaper than buying maternity clothes that will only get worn for another 6-7 weeks.

Baby bump at 33 weeks

We're almost at the count-down now and I still don't have my office/sewing room turned into a baby room.  I've still got basically no clothes for the baby, but I'm counting on some hand-me-downs from my SILs that have been promised (mostly boys stuff, though).  I will be knitting something for bubs out of the Jodulbug yarn as well - the first knitted item for my own baby, how useless am I!?

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So, what stuff have you been up to lately?  Please link me to your blog if you have one as I'm in need of some fresh blog-reading!
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My Secret Revealed

The Red Riding Hood Yarn Club packages went out last week and have all been received, which means I am now free to tell you all about my latest designs!

Poseidon

I was so excited when Hannah wanted to involve me as a pattern designer for one of the month's installments and it was great fun working with her to produce a pattern to fit her yarn and theme.

Amphitrite

The overall theme for the Yarn Club is 'Magical Creatures' and my month's installment is Mermaids and Mermen.  I was to design a vest pattern along that theme - one for the boy's club and one for the girl's.

The boy Club package

I wanted both vests to be similar, with the boy one done in cables and the girl one done in lace.  The vests both feature a central 'fishtail' panel done in a cable for boys and lace for girls.  To either side on the fronts, the vests feature ribbing with cables or lace to invoke images of grand pillars with seaweed and ropes similar to what might be found in the underwater city of Atlantis.

The girl Club package

The pattern names I’ve taken from ancient Greek mythology - Poseidon and Amphitrite. Most people will be familiar with Poseidon as the god of the sea, but maybe not so much with Amphitrite who was a sea-goddess and wife of Poseidon. Amphitrite was a daughter of Nereus so is also known as a ‘Nereid’ which is the name I used for the central lace panel for the girl’s vest. The name for the central cable panel for the boy’s vest, Triton, is the name of their son who was also a merman.

The package also included some gorgeous handmade buttons from Buttons by Benji which are perfectly colour-matched to the yarn Hannah has dyed.

Fantastic quality - I will be purchasing more!

And I think Hannah did such a fantastic job dyeing the colours!  They are both perfectly suited for the mermaid/man theme, conjuring up images of watery worlds and fishscales.

Now my job's done, I'm quite excited to see what surprises the other two months will hold - I already know who the other two designers are so I know they'll be good!




All but the modelled pictures have been 'borrowed' from RRHY's Blog or Facebook - Thanks, Hannah!

These patterns are club-exclusive for 6months at which time I will make them available for purchase.
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Squishy Packages

I love couriers!  They deliver stuff and it's always good!

This week I got a lovely squishy package that contained:

RRHY

and

RRHY

Aren't they gorgeous?

Maybe you don't think so because they just look shades of grey*, but in real life they are!

Now to knit furiously so my Red Riding Hood Yarn club patterns have lovely modelled photos in the colourway to go with it!

(Don't forget, signups are happening May 1st!)




*You didn't really think I'd post colour photos and ruin the surprise, did you?
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Red Riding Hood Yarns


A talented mother-of-two that I know from a couple of forums I read (I'm not much of a conversationalist in forums except Ravelry) started up a yarn dyeing business last year.  Hannah's colours are always fantastic and sell out relatively fast.  She always uses quality yarn in a range of weights (4ply/fingering, 8ply/DK, 10ply/worsted) and I love the creativity of her dyeing themes!

If you haven't already, check out her blog to get an idea of her great colour ideas and if you're keen to buy, keep up to date with her yarn for sale over on the Facebook page.

This year Hannah is planning on doing a yarn club over winter and I'm fortunate enough to be one of the designers for a month's installment!  Her plan is to run it over three months - June, July & August - and each installment will include 200g of hand-dyed, superwash merino yarn (8ply/DK weight), a corresponding pattern and other special goodies.  She will be doing both boy's and girl's options and the patterns will be aimed at approx 3mths-5yrs.  Check here for more details.

I won't be ruining the surprise for those that take part, but I have to say that I've been working hard on my two patterns (boy and girl versions) lately, with testing already underway.  It's all very exciting for me as I've never done designing like this before (designing for a theme and having a deadline) and I don't know how people do it all the time for magazines and books!

So, make a note in your diary to stalk Hannah's Facebook page on May 1st so you can grab your spot when Hannah makes them available as there are limited numbers - you won't be disappointed!
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Blogtober - Day 2 - This week's Mail

This was the last installment in the Vintage Purls Winter sock club.  Even though it was a little later than it should've been (due to the non-superwash-batch issues Morag had) the timing seemed to fit in perfectly with the end of Winter - this week really has felt like Spring!

The yarn is a really nice shades of blue colourway - better than the photo shows!
The 'extras' were another design of sticky notes, a funky heart bead and the obligatory sugar (chocolate, my favourite!)
The pattern is another of her usual interesting and fun designs.  It has a main cable with lacy leaf design and two smaller twists/cables to either side.  The toe and gusset have matching increases which give a nice interest to the look.  I'm quite a fan of cables, so this might have to be started soon...
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More Exciting Post

It's been a good week for fun packages for me!  After the nice parcel on Monday, I got another parcel on Wednesday...


This was my 2nd installment in the Vintage Purls Winter Sock Club.  I was hoping there would be some colourwork in one of the patterns this time as I've never done it before and have been wanting to try it.  Morag does a great job of her Sock Clubs as I found out in the Summer one and I haven't been disappointed yet.

In the package:
2 Skeins of VP Sock Club exclusive colourways - 'Top Soil' (brown background colour) & 'Beetle' (green foreground colour)
'Bug Out' sock pattern (exclusive to Sock Club members for 6-12 months when she releases it to the public)
A packet of knitting 'gift tags' with spaces to fill in the care details of handmade garments (very useful as I often gift my knitting and wash and care instructions always need to be given as not all wool has to be hand-washed)
A small packet of Cadbury after dinner mints (sorry, they didn't make it to the photo!)
Letter & details about this installment


Then today in the letterbox...


This is my 2nd installment in the Knitsch 'Flights of Fancy' Yarn Club.  Tash is running this club with two colourways each month and you either signed up to the 'Plan Ahead' (get to choose which one you want from a description) or 'Mystery Escape' (complete surprise).  I signed up for the 'Mystery Escape'.

In the package:
1 Skein of Knitsch Yarn Club exclusive colourway 'Polly'
A very handy pencil with an Albert Einstein quote
A roomy WIP (work in progress) bag in a bright daffodil print fabric
Letter explaining the background for the inspiration of the month's colourways
(The pattern for each installment is emailed each month, a day or so after posting of packages so I'm still waiting on that to arrive hopefully tonight or tomorrow)



Anyone else get nice post recently?
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No Photos

I think the main reason I'm rather slack with posting is I feel that a post with no photos is a boring post and I'm terribly lazy at taking and uploading photos!

But really a post with no photos is better than no post at all isn't it?

So, an update on what I've been doing...
(And maybe there will be photos next time.)

I've decided that I liked the look of a pattern in a book I got from the library the other day but of course it wasn't quite something I'd actually knit to the pattern.  It's seamed to start with and I'm really terrible at actually finishing things like that (I have a nice jersey I knitted for my #3 that was completely finished except I just had to sew in the last sleeve and she could wear it - it's still sitting in my craft chest in the shed - size 1 and she's 4 now).  It's a saddle shoulder/drop sleeve style which I really don't like as they always look so homemade and ill-fitting very quickly.  The back and front are knitted the same - which means a high neckline which my girls won't wear.  And the pattern's only a size 1, 2 or 3 which none of my girls are anymore.  So anyway, I decided to make my own version, knitted seamlessly, top-down, shaped neckline, and in 10ply to make it go faster.  It's proving to be a fun challenge so far - I'm starting top-down with a collar...

Hopefully, if all goes according to plan I should be able to write up the pattern in a future post!


What else I've been up to is finishing the test knit for Celia I was doing - just have to block it now then I'll take photos and put it up on my rav project page.  I've also been (forcing myself to) finishing the two baby gifts I've had sitting around for ages.  One is a Spring Butterfly for a friend's baby - I just had to block it and put on buttons, but decided I didn't really like the ruffle hem so undid it and redid it in the 'little arrowhead' lace pattern off the rainbow dress pattern.  It looks lots better and (still) just needs blocking then I can gift it.  The other one was a Rainbow Dress for my niece which I did actually finish just the other day but didn't like either.  I did the 'little arrowhead' lace hem but was a bit short on the contrast wool I had and had to do the garter finish in the main body colour.  It seemed to make it look too long and just wrong so I undid it and did a 6-row garter with a picot cast off and it really looks good now.  Just hoping SIL likes it as she's rather fussy with things like that.

And I've also picked up my VP sock club sock again that I started ages ago - Heart of Glass and have done a bit more on it now.  I love the last installment so I'm forcing myself to finish this one first before I start that one.  (Heart of Glass is the first installment and I haven't even thought about starting the second one yet!)
I'm thinking about doing the Winter club too...
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