yarn « The Blue Brick | Photography and Handcrafts by Shireen Nadir

Posts Tagged 'yarn'

Alpaca Acres

Published October 11, 2011 Photography , Travels 31 Comments
Tags: alpaca, alpaca acres, farm, yarn

What a busy weekend! It was the perfect weekend – full of family, friends and crafty pursuits. I couldn’t have asked for a better thanksgiving.

On Saturday Tito and I drove to a an alpaca farm that he found online - Alpaca Acres in Stratford Ontario. Yes, he sleuthed out an alpaca farm for me and drove me there as a treat. I tell ya, the man is a keeper ;)

While there we were treated to a tour by the owners Ann and Dan. They are amazing, friendly folk who really love their animals and have raised award winning Alpacas. After speaking with them I had a whole new appreciation for what it takes to raise healthy, happy alpacas.

We learned lots of interesting things about how to care for Alpacas, and got to feed them some treats. They are friendly, inquisitive animals with the softest wool.

This gossipy looking Alpaca with the white stripe on her head is named Sandy. Ann sells her yarn with the name of the animal it came from (how cool is that?) so instead of matching up dye lots you match up who the wool came from. I treated myself to a sweaters worth of ‘Sandy’.

This beautiful design by Erin Harper (Ravelry ID, Project Page) is called the New York Cardigan, and I think it’s the perfect pattern for all this gorgeous Alpaca. I already swatched for it and I think it’ll be a perfect match!

We enjoyed ourselves immensely and will definitely be coming back for more yarn. I love that I can get high quality yarn that’s soft as anything, from amazing people, while supporting an Ontario farm and knowing that I’m buying sustainable yarn with a low carbon footprint. I foresee many visits to Stratford in our future :)

Swirly Summer Yarn Bell

Published July 18, 2011 Pottery , Yarn Bowls and Bells 7 Comments
Tags: ceramics, pottery, yarn, yarn bell, yarn bowl

This beauty came out of the kiln earlier this summer, but I haven’t been to the studio in a while to get it. I took the summer off but will be getting back in this September.

**Post Update** – I finally decided to try selling these babies on Etsy – click the Etsy link on the right to see what’s available!

For those of you who haven’t seen one yet – the bell holds a ball of yarn and keeps it turning smoothly as you work. They are being sold at the Purple Purl here in Toronto and knitters/crocheters love them :) This bell uses the same technique as my swirly mugs from last spring, which is how I achieve the relief in the design.

I also finished up what will be, for now, my last of the froggie bowls. I’d like to start exploring new avenues of design so I will only produce these on request.

The froggie was a good companion to folks needing to ‘rip it’ back, but we’re definitely due for some fresh design :) Anyone looking to purchase a yarn bell or bowl can visit the Purple Purl or email me hello@thebluebrick.ca

Goodies!!!

Published May 25, 2011 Knitting Leave a Comment
Tags: Dye-Version, fleece artist, tanis fiber arts, Viola, yarn

Though the Knitters Frolic is almost a month gone I’ve finally had a chance to post about the goodies I bought! It’s so delicious looking that I can’t bear to keep it all in the stash; it’s all on display on my desk at the moment =o)

How beautiful is this? 3 skeins of Dye-Version bamboo in the colourway ‘Rustico’ – enough for a shawl sized Clapotis (which is on the needles now, but work is so crazy I’m moving at a snails pace with it, grrr…)

And then there’s this. At last I have treated myself to a skein of Tanis Fiber Arts‘ Silver label Mulberry Silk in the colourway ‘Teal’. So beautiful it can only go to someone really special so I will be knitting the Citizen shawl for a certain somebody.

I couldn’t resist this colourway, so I added 2 more skeins of the Teal in Purple Label Cashmere for me. This will be going into the Sugared Violets Shawl. I think it’ll be a perfect match.

I also couldn’t resist swinging by the Viola booth – Emily makes stunning colourways in a truly remarkable yarn. This beauty is called Radioactive in her Merino Sock weight. It’s destiny is uncertain… perhaps I’ll actually try knitting my first pair of socks.

Mmmm… Fleece Artist. That’s 800 metres of gorgeous colour. I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do with it. I just wanted it ;)

Oh, the Horror

Published May 17, 2011 Knitting 3 Comments
Tags: knitting, SOAK, Viola, yarn

This is a tale of redemption and resilience. This is what happened to the hat I thought I’d lost.

It had fallen into the leaves in the parking lot last fall, and turned up this spring. It had been outdoors, under snow, all winter. It had been rained on. It had been snowed on. It had been run over by our car, for about 3 months before Tito picked it out of the mulch with a look of horror and said ‘Is this yours?’.

Now, if this was an ordinary hat I’d have called it a loss. But it’s not. For a start, it’s Emily’s yarn. Which doesn’t just make it 100 times more precious to me – but also means that it bounces back from tragedy like nobodies business. Besides, I knitted it specifically to go with my Thermis, and damned if I wasn’t going to get some use out of it. I am also wise in the ways of the restorative powers of S oak. So with this in mind, and a strong cup of tea, I set about operation rescue.

First I had to get all of the mulch out of it. Yuck. This is not even a third of what I pulled out of that hat. Thankfully it was early enough in the spring that I had only to contend with mulch and not critters.

Next I rinsed it in warm water a few times and then set it into a warm bath of Soak. I left it there for an hour, emptied and refilled the Soak wash. I had to do this twice more before the water came out perfectly clear. I put the red bottle in because it’s my favourite scent =o)

And voila! Look at that, it’s perfect. The fibres all fell back into place, the hat smells great and it’s completely clean and wearable. Kudos to Emily and the fine folk at Soak – I will go on to enjoy this hat next winter =o)

Adventures in dying wool (or how to not remind people of Jim Jones)

Published March 30, 2011 Dying Yarn Leave a Comment
Tags: Dye, Kool Aid, yarn

I needed lots of single serve packets of Kool-Aid – so I could have the most colour variety possible. I went to the Sobeys near my place and loaded up on about 30 single serve packets, in as many different colours as I could get. I took my findings to the cashier, where the person ahead of me in line kept glancing back at my absurd collection. I decided to clarify for him.

–

Me: I’m dying

Person: You’re What ?!

Me: Yeah, tonight – you can do it with Kool-Aid – did you know that?

–

If you want to try it yourself here are some basic guidelines (use superwash, natural fibers):

Wash the yarn, and let it soak for about half an hour. Add a cup of vinegar (this helps the Kool-Aid be colourfast)
Put the yarn on the stove and bring it to a very slow simmer. Doing this slowly is key, otherwise you might felt your yarn.
Add the Kool-Aid – either pour the crystals directly into the pot, or mix with a little water to form a concentrated solution and add that to the pot. Needless to say, don’t add sugar ;o)
You can add different colours to different parts of the yarn to produce a varigated yarn, or do the whole thing in one colour.
Let yarn simmer for another half hour or so and then take it off the heat.
When it’s cool, give it a gentle rinse and hang up up overnight to dry.

Here are some pics of my favourite self-dyed pieces =o)

Swatching over to the dark side

Published February 14, 2011 Knitting Leave a Comment
Tags: knitting, yarn

Check it out – I swatched!

I had plunged bravely into my first ever sweater using 6 lovely balls of TFA Sunset that I bought last summer – which involved substituting the yarn and guessing at the needles – no problem, right? Well, a book I was reading by the Yarn Harlot terrified me into swatching, just to see if I was about to have to rip the entire thing back. I knitted it, washed it, smoothed it out and left it over night and… I got gauge. Amazingly enough. I hope I’m right. I hope I didn’t totally screw this up, or that the swatch is misleading, because I am going full speed ahead with my cardigan.

Having confirmed that Tanis will be at the Knitters Frolic this spring I’ve made it a goal to finish the sweater by then so I can enjoy wearing it to the festival and show it off to her ;o) I think I can do it! (There will be other things to celebrate that weekend, but more on that later) There’s just a few things I need to get out of the way first…

Isn’t this gorgeous? I loved my Traveling Woman shawl so much I decided to make an enormous one, in a worsted weight. This will be my Lion King shawl, I chose the colour especially to wear to opening night of the Lion King musical when it returns to Toronto this April. It’s going to be lovely! I’m proud of myself for breaking out of my regular colours a bit too.

My dad’s Christmas scarf. Who are we kidding, this will be ready next Christmas…luckily I bought him one to hold him over ;o)

My reversible mobius lava flow cowl in TFA peacock – first time doing reversible cables – this one is almost done!

And then there’s temptation – check out this lovely thing that arrived in the mail the other day….

Not to mention 470 yards of this beautiful blue Malabrigo lace yarn in Oceanos. I’ll be looking for another shawl pattern for this baby.

That’s all for now, just lots of knitted goodies =o) There will be more fun stuff in the next few days – I should be getting my first lampworked beads out of the kiln today, and also some of my new yarn bowls!

Oh, yes I did.

Published February 3, 2011 Crochet , Photography 12 Comments
Tags: 7D, Canon, Crochet, photography, Tanis, yarn

Meet the new baby.

This is the Canon 7D. Swaddled in TFA Grape. Yes, I said swaddled. Because nothing says love like TFA yarn. No Patons cop-out for my camera!

I crocheted a camera cosy. I’m not sure if this qualifies me as uber geek… or just incredibly lame. Maybe they’re the same thing. Nonetheless, I’m pretty proud of my new camera and it’s protective Canon-mitten =oD

There is a reason, besides just reaching for hitherto unheard of levels of crafting madness; it protects her from the elements, and allows me to tuck in a few hand-warmers around the battery casing which extends the life of lithium batteries in the cold. Really – it works. I’m taking her snow shoeing in Tobermory in a few weeks, so I’ll need it.

While I’m at it I’ll give you another little nugget of wisdom – if you’re taking your camera out in elements of dubious merit (rain, rainforest, fog etc.) then do this first: Go to a shoe store, ask them for a bag of the silica gel packs (most stores throw away a ton of these things every day) and pack a bunch of them into your camera case. Even if you’re just moving in from the cold and to a warm room, and you’re worried about condensation inside of the camera body – try this trick.

I can’t take credit for this nugget of wisdom – when I told the people at Henrys that I would be taking the camera canoeing up the Amazon river and did they have any suggestions, they could only (with sad faces), wish me good luck. When I mentioned it casually to someone at Mountain Equipment Co-Op they said ‘Hmmm… I wonder if this would work?’ and took me to the shoe department. Well, that person was a genius and I have them to thank for successfully taking a V.1. Rebel, plastic casing and all, from the Andes to the Amazon with absolutely no problem.

I left openings in the cosy for all important things, like the tripod foot and the dial for changing shooting modes, settings and of course, the shutter button.

The grody little boogly face on the right was given to me (and my 50D) in Madrid by a very nice girl who came up to me at random and gave it to me for good luck. I took some very fine shots in Spain, so I suppose it worked out for me =o) I’ve kept it on the camera ever since.

Many of the cameras other settings are accessed through the back LCD – so I didn’t need to leave anything else free.

It’s quite the engineering feat if you think about it. And yes, I’m talking about the cosy and not the camera, which we can assume is an amazing piece of equipment and which I love dearly. I’ve been a Canon shooter for over 12 years, and this, my latest appropriation, is a pretty damn amazing camera!

My 50D is being gifted to my beautiful friend Yvette, who I’ve known nearly all of my life and who is moving on to new adventures in New Brunswick next month. I can’t wait to see what beautiful work she does with it!

The Blue Brick | Photography and Handcrafts by Shireen Nadir

Posts Tagged 'yarn'

Alpaca Acres

Swirly Summer Yarn Bell

Goodies!!!

Oh, the Horror

Adventures in dying wool (or how to not remind people of Jim Jones)

Swatching over to the dark side

Oh, yes I did.

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