The Blue Brick

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Ancient WIPs

April 27, 2015

This yarn began its life as an Etsy OOAK called ‘Green Sea’ that I snagged from a Tanis Fiber Arts Etsy update. Not only was it a OOAK colour, but it was some kind of super special base with silk, and I think cashmere in it. So unsurprisingly, I hoarded it for the better part of a year before doing anything.

Then I thought I found the perfect pattern. I wound it up and cast on. I got through 5 rows, and then my cat ate it. A OOAK TFA ball. Cat lived. That’s how much I love him.

But then I decided that the pattern had bad mojo (hey, I had to blame something) so the yarn sat for another few months before I decided on Magrathea as a vacation knit, packed it up and went off. I cast on in a hotel room in Puerto Rico while my family slept thinking ‘I bet I’ll finish this in one go!’ (pride goeth before the fall…). I got home with this much done.

Almost a year later it made an appearance in a New Years post about WIPs that I really had to get my act together on. It looks a little bigger there, though I don’t recall working on it. I wrote that off to a happy accident, resolved to get on it, failed, and there it sat until a week ago.

One week of determined knitting later and a photo of it blocking rose to instagram fame (for me, that means 40 likes. I was pretty excited).

It’s done, and I love it so much I can’t believe I sat on it for so long.

Some folks on Ravelry mentioned that they had run out of yarn, but out of a 400 yard skein, I got 28 repeats of the petal pattern, and still had about 7g left over. I am very happy with the wearable size, and asymmetrical fit.

My only comments are to heed the designers advice about leaving 25% of the yarn for the edging charts, and to be aware that on the last chart, your marker will shift over, twice. It’s not mentioned in the pattern, so it threw me off, but if you trust the chart and keep going you will find that things line up. Ravelry project page here.

This is random, but I have to include some pics of how pretty the evening was. The lake was so calm, and the sky was so textured. It was one of those days where one reflects the other perfectly. It snowed a bit last week (don’t ask how a Torontonian feels about snow in late April) and we were very grateful for a nice evening to take photos!
Snapshots of Creativity

April 24, 2015

It’s one of those weeks where I’ve been very productive, but haven’t had time to shoot anything properly. In lieu of proper posts, I leave you with instagram snapshots of what I’ve been up to :) Have a wonderful weekend!

More etched pieces, I think I’m addicted ;)

The beginnings of leatherwork. An etched love letter on a copper base.

My first pair of Hermione’s Everyday socks. 10000 Ravellers can’t be wrong!

Ollie, the junior foreman, keeping an eye on me.

Shawl pins, after the metal-smithing and before receiving their patina, flowers and resin.

My Magrathea is finally blocking. I cast it on over a year ago, in a TFA OOAK that I’d been hoarding forever…

Red Queen Anne’s Lace earrings, on their way to a customer!
New Jewelry in the Shop

April 19, 2015

And for those of you looking for shawl pins, I promise they’re coming! Shawl pins are a little more complex to make, and I have learned to never, ever, try to take short cuts when it comes to resin. Patience my dears! when they are ready I promise they will be gorgeous.

In the meantime, have a look at the new goodies, which include etched copper earrings, and spherical pendants :)
New Adventures, New Logo

April 18, 2015

The Blue Brick is getting a new logo! The blue is fairly obvious, and if you were to see my yarn stash you’d know that turquoise is my all-time favourite, calming colour. The font is a serif, something that feels classic and romantic, much more connected to the type of jewelry that we make than contemporary, modern fonts. The filigree work is a nod to my heritage; my father was born in India and I have always loved having mendhi applies to my hands.

To celebrate our new adventures, our leap into selling our work on a more serious level, and the fact that it’s an actual company and not just a hobby. It’s like getting a new haircut.
New FO – I’d Rather Go Dancing!

April 16, 2015

First off, thank you to everyone who visited our new online store and helped make opening day a success, we couldn’t have been happier. I promise more shawl pins are on the way, and hoping to do an update on Sunday evening :) As you can see, we’ve been quite busy.

Today is a knitting-focused day though, and I wanted to show off the latest sample I’ve knit for ‘I’d Rather Be Cruising’ worked up in Cosmic Blue Label Iris, and Chris Grey, earning it the nickname ‘I’d Rather go Dancing!’.

Iris in Cosmic Blue Label is the prettiest yarn I’ve ever seen. Full confession here, I always thought I’d hate sparkly yarns. I’m not a sparkly person, and they always looked so scratchy. Now I’m a believer, this yarn is as soft as you’d expect merino to be, and the sparkles (I’m sure of it) have magical properties that make knitting go faster.

This shawl blocked out to a gorgeous 78″x26″. The knit was quick, owing not only to sparkles, but to the completely mindless quality of the pattern (2 rows for the body, 2 rows for the lace. Perfect Game of Thrones knitting!).

Definitely not shawlette-sized, it covers my entire back nicely. It’s just waiting for the right weather, a sunny patio, and a nice sundress.

Ravelry project page here:
And you can purchase the pattern on Ravelry here, or on my new e-shop here!
Opening Day

April 14, 2015

The store is open :) Click on the handy ‘visit our online store‘ buttons to visit the Blue Brick’s Shopify site and check it out! If you see something you like, use the coupon code OPENINGDAY at checkout to get 10% off your entire order (expires at midnight EST).

The site is new and I’m sure there will be much tweaking in the near future, so please bear with me while I smooth out the little things, but on the whole I feel quite happy and satisfied with this new adventure. Ultimately I hope to phase out the Etsy site, so even if you’re picking up a pattern, or e-book, I would ask that you use the new online store instead of Etsy.

I’m too giddy to think of much else to say! Here’s a pretty picture :)
An E-Commerce Site at Last!

April 13, 2015

Ok, this is a bit anti-climatic, because you can’t actually visit the site until tomorrow, but the good news is that I’ve finally managed to find an Etsy alternative that works for me and I’m going to give it a shot. You will be able to purchase resin jewelry, copies of my book and e-book, and of course, knitting patterns. It seemed strange at first to try and combine these three things under one storefront, but I think I made it work.

Starting tomorrow you’ll be able to visit the Blue Brick’s online store at thebluebrick.myshopify.com. If you go now, you’ll see that we aren’t open for business yet. I am still testing it out, making sure all the links work, searching for typos and feeling a bit nervous about it all.

Nerves aside, we’ve received an enormous amount of positive feedback on our work, and I want to thank everyone who took the time to say something nice. All that encouragement helped get us here. If you’ve been looking at some of our pieces lately, here is a sneak preview of some of the items that will be listed for sale tomorrow!
Mexican Lace Scarf

April 8, 2015

I took this off the loom a few weeks ago, but it was uncertain whether I would get nice FO shots of it because, alas, I left the bedroom door open and my kitties got on it and clawed the heck out of it.

I found it like that. Honest.

However, we managed to wrangle most of the threads back into place. This was my stash busting scarf, using less than 50g of each colour.

Incidentally, this is the best, fastest and cheapest was to wind up a bobbin:

I am using a variation of Leno Lace to vary up my panels a bit. It might just be the kitty damage, but I felt it looked much nicer under tension on the loom than it looked blocked, which is something you don’t hear too often!

However, the size is generous, and the yarns are all either silk, merino, or both so it’s delicious to wear!

And it happens to go very nicely with our new shawl pins :)
What We’ve Been Up To

April 6, 2015

Actually, I’ve been up to a great deal more than this – I’m building out an e-commerce site that will allow folks to purchase patterns, books and jewelry from us, without having to bother with Etsy, but it’s not ready for release just yet :) In the meantime, here is some eye-candy of our latest pieces (including our first in sterling silver!).
Stained Glass

April 2, 2015

A while ago, I brought home this lovely braid from a friends destash: Julie Spins Ultrafine Merino in a colour called ‘Stained Glass’.

My spinning has definitely taken a hit lately, between knitwear design and churning out jewellery, but I finally found time a few weeks ago to get this spin off my wheel before it officially started collecting dust.

I decided to just split it in half and create a 2-py. I wanted a relaxing spin, and didn’t try to keep colours together. I’m pleased to say that I had less than a yard left over on one bobbin after plying (due entirely to fabulous good luck and not even a little bit to the consistency of my spinning).

I always love how it looks on the niddy noddy. It’s the first glimpse of what the newborn yarn really looks like.

And then you take it off the niddy noddy. And it looks about as attractive as a newborn chicken.

After a good soak, and vigorous thwacking and snapping (technical terms, I’m assured) the yarn evened out into a nice, fluffy 2-ply. I am delighted to say that I came out at 100g and 430 yards. Not bad!

Now to figure out the right destiny for it. A warp? The body of ‘I’d Rather Be Cruising‘? What do you guy think?