Our professional photos will take a little while to arrive, but I wanted to share some of the candid moments from our wedding day, and from the photo shoot that we did the following morning in the park. The day already feels like a blur!
-
-
Back in the saddle after many weeks of being preoccupied with wedding stuff, and being away on a truly epic honeymoon :) Feels good to be home, good to be married, and I got to celebrate my birthday in Rome. I’m a lucky girl. Also, we had fireworks.
On our honeymoon, Aine was with me every evening on the ship :) I am completely in love with this cowl, the texture is out of this world! Linda Marveng, the designer, is a genius.
I had been cabling without a needle for most of it, but finally gave in and started using cocktail stir sticks.
I love this photo, because it shows my bridal henna, before it faded off:
This lucky cowl got washed in a cruise ship sink and blocked on our balcony on a sunny day in Greece =D Tough life!
And the best part? FO shots in Rome. Not just Rome, but from the Ponte Sant’Angelo (completed 134 AD). How very, very cool is that? In the background you can see the Castel Sant’Angelo.
I dropped from the recommended 13 repeats to only 10, because I’m super short and it just felt better on me. The texture and smoosh factor are out of this world and the reversible cables make me unreasonably happy.
The yarn is Sweet Georgia’s Merino Silk Aran (discontinued) in the colour way ‘Goldmine’. I’ve been hoarding it forever and this was just the perfect project for such a luxury yarn. I couldn’t love it more! Ravelry project page here.
-
Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter the contest on my blog last week, and please accept my apologies for the lateness of this post, as I get closer to wedding bells, life gets crazier! Kathryn, you’re the winner! You will receive your pattern via Ravelry :)
Kathryn wrote:
“The Aine is lovely, and totally your colour! I love that you are planning for Honeymoon knitting ;) but hopefully you won’t have a lot of spare time. I love Nexus myself. I have so many single skeins that I would like to see in that design. I am also looking for something compact to take on a trip this weekend!”
And so Aine it is… sort of! Last Sunday I had to take a red-eye flight to Vancouver, and then Calgary for work. It was a crazy 36 hours, even with views like this:
As an extra perk, I got to meet the Yarn Harlot! I recognized her on my flight back to Toronto and she was quite good-natured about my request that she hold up Blue Brick yarn for a photo :) She was also immensely cool to talk to, and good company for that period of the inevitable boarding delay.
So why Aine… sort of? I took it on the Vancouver flight, figured I’d get started…
With the result that I’m about halfway done since these photos were taken. SO, the runner-up, the mitts, will come with me to the honeymoon as well :) Win!
-
A few weeks ago I was thrilled to announce my inclusion as a designer in the collection ‘Fall With Sweet Georgia 2015’ for my pattern, the ‘Siesta’ cowl. It was such an amazing experience, I’m not afraid to tell you that I literally embarrassed all my friends by doing a happy dance in a parking lot when I got the email letting me know that my pattern had been chosen :)
Today I want to focus on some of the other, absolutely stunning patterns in the collection. I want to get knitting, and it’s super had to choose! One of these will definitely come along as my honeymoon knitting project, the question is, which one? Let’s see….
First off, here’s the release post and Lookbook. Absolutely a must-see – check it out!
Here are my faves:
Number one (and no wonder, it was used on the cover): Reiland by Corrina Ferguson.
I LOVE the shape. I love how it looks like it sits on the shoulders and does. not. budge. That lace! DK weight lace! *swoon*.
A little too complicated for vacation knitting though, so next up is ‘Aine’ by Linda Marveng. How comfortable does this look? And, be still my beating heart, the cables are REVERSIBLE. That one detail alone is enough to make me want to sequester myself with tea and knitting for a few days. Yes, this is definitely my lead contender.
This one is *probably* too ambitious for vacation knitting, but then there’s all that time in airport where you can use something a little spicier to work on, so who knows? And just look at that texture… this is ‘Vineyard’ by Klever Knits. I’m not usually a purple person, but even the colour of this knit kills me.
And finally, the ‘Waggle Hat and Mittens‘ by Yvette Noel, and not only because the name is awesome. Toronto got super chilly this week, and the first place I always feel it is in my hands! I’m sure by the time we come home it will be that much chiller, perhaps the prudent thing is to come home with smooshy new mittens?
So what do you guys think? Check out the rest of the collection on Ravelry here and leave a note in the comments telling me what I should take on vacation! Leave me your email address and/or Ravelry ID as well and you could win a free copy of your favourite pattern! Winner will be chosen at random on Monday morning and be contacted via email or Ravelry, stay tuned to the blog find out what I’ll me taking on my honeymoon :)
-
Etsy Shop update tomorrow, at 11am EST! This will be the last shop update until mid-late November, and I’m super happy with the work. This update has the new base ‘Manitoulin Merino’; 475 yards of luxurious single-ply merino, and a totally new set of colours. Here are the last two: introducing ‘Meaford’!
This gorgeous colour is available only in Manitoulin merino; 3 precious skeins available tomorrow.
I also created ‘The Battery’; deep ocean blues with hits of bright colours. I’ll be honest, it was a pain to dye, so I doubt we’ll be doing this one again. If you like it, grab it ;)
And how gorgeous is this skein of ‘Night Falls’?
And finally, a recap of the other new colours. Sale goes live at 11am EST tomorrow, hope to see you there!
-
When we first got engaged, it seems like the big day was ages away, but then just like that it was in less than 3 weeks. It’s amazing how many moving parts a thing like a wedding has, and while my mom has relieved me of 90% of the planning, I still find myself overwhelmed by what’s left. Add to that a hectic day job, the Blue Brick yarn business and what it’s like when your home has become a studio and…. well, let’s just say it’s never boring ;)
I have 2 big announcements today, unrelated to the wedding and totally related to fabulous yarns! The first one is that, this Friday, on our Etsy store at 11am EST I will launch what shall be the very last yarn update until mid-November. This update will feature 5 new colours, 3 of which have already been released on instagram/facebook:
And onto the second announcement, did you notice the gorgeous base that I’ve chosen to use for all three of those photos? Introducing ‘Manitoulin Merino’ – a fingering weight single-ply yarn in 100% merino with a luxurious feel and a generous yardage at 475 yards per skein, perfect for larger shawl projects.
This base picks up colour beautifully, and it feels so luxurious to the touch! It will be hard to let go of all my skeins.
Look for my new Manitoulin Merino in this Friday’s update :)
-
Now that Tito and I are less than a month from the wedding, we were seriously hedging about whether or not to do another Etsy update beforehand, or wait until we get back.
We compromised ;) We’re going to do a small Etsy update (60 skeins) so that we’re able to manage dyeing/fulfillment before things really get down to the wire. We had two reasons for deciding to go ahead:
- We’re not back from honeymoon until the end of October, so the next Etsy update wouldn’t be until a large one scheduled for mid-November (the Christmas one!).
- It’s harvest season here in Southern Ontario, and that means inspiration abounds. Just take a look at this mood board I’ve put together, showcasing some of the pics I’ve taken in the past week!
-
In exactly one month, Tito and I are getting married!
My partner in crime, my adventure buddy, my muse, my travel companion, and the willing participant in all my crazy schemes… Tito is perfect for me.
He’s also my balance, my calm place, my reminder to take it easy. He’s willing to look stupid for a photo, hold onto my legs while I hang over a cliff, and untangle my yarn when a 1000 yard skein of lace goes awry.
He will willingly ferry a carload of karate students to a seminar, hold up my punching pads and be my cheering section.
He can hack out a solution to any engineering challenge and plot a course to any obscure waterfall. He is still full of wonderment, of adventure, of curiosity, and of love.
He’s my guy <3 in one month, he’ll be my husband. I’m a lucky gal.
-
As you’ve probably gathered, Tito and I are photographers :) We travel, both within Ontario and around the world (often on shoestring budgets, it can be done!) documenting and being inspired. In my day job I work in a design firm, and my other hobbies include pottery, jewelry and painting. Tito is also a painter, and sculptor. To me, it is this cross pollination from different disciplines that allows me to be inspired by photography, and also to recreate those colours and impressions on yarn. I consider myself to be a designer foremost, and my medium of the moment, whether it be yarn, resin or paint, to be a secondary consideration.
Today I wanted to share an inspiring little shoot that we did not too far from home; at the Canadian National Exhibition. For those of you who don’t live in Toronto; the CNE is an annual tradition, the closing of summer, the airshow, rides, food combos to turn the bravest stomachs (I think this year it was a double cheeseburger with fried chicken in between two beef patties, or some such horror) and a traditional carnival atmosphere on the fairway that, to me, easily beats our other major theme park for atmosphere and ambience.
Every year Tito and I visit the CNE on a date night with our cameras. Every year we shoot something a little different. This year I took a tilt-shift lens to experiment with selective focus and how that can change the mood of an image. Here are some of my favourite results; I don’t know yet if they will translate well to yarn, but I love the atmosphere of the shots. Enjoy!
-
Big news at the Blue Brick! The Fall with SweetGeorgia Vol 1 Collection is out, and I’m one of the designers =D I’m super honoured, and excited to be a part of this, with my new design the ‘Siesta’ cowl. Check out the lookbook here, and the entire collection on Ravelry here.
© SweetGeorgia Yarns / Josh Yong, 2015. Fall with SweetGeorgia Vol 1. Siesta began as a series of sketches, based on my love of bandana style cowls. I’m always looking to cover that gap that traditional cowls leave, just where the jacket closes. Also, not being particularly long of neck myself, I love the idea of a cowl that leaves bulk and warmth only where I need it, and has a slim line otherwise.
I played with a textural stitch that I really loved, and added a slipped stitch edging that resembles an i-cord when done, while keeping the edge from rolling.
And the pattern is finally live! The other patterns in the collection are _stunning_ and I am so thrilled to be part of this! Thank you to the folks at Sweet Georgia, and I’m already casting on one of the other gorgeous patterns tonight :)
© SweetGeorgia Yarns / Josh Yong, 2015. Fall with SweetGeorgia Vol 1.
The Blue Brick 