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!
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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! -
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 :)
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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.
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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!
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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 :)
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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!
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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 :)
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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!).
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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?
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Sometimes a pattern takes an unexpected turn on you. After ‘Sandy’, which was beautiful but complex, I really needed a turn-your-brain-off knit. I was also feeling super inspired by a skein of Cosmic Blue Label that Tanis had sent me for her colour shifting scarf. It looked so fun and glittery to knit with, and a design started to grow in my head.
A generous sized shawl, with a straightforward stockinette body made speedy by aggressive increasing and sparkly yarn, accented by lace I could do in my sleep. Something that made use of colour, but was equally lovely in a 1-skein, 1-colour option. Something to take on vacation, and thus “I’d Rather Be Cruising” was born!
Price: $5.00, If you’d like to go cruising through a shawl, choose an option :)
Ravelry | Etsy | Craftsy
Here’s the official blurb:
Sometimes you need a relaxing knit. A TV knit, a vacation knit, an I-don’t-feel-like-thinking-too-much knit.
“I’d Rather Be Cruising” is just that; there are 2 rows to remember for the body, and 2 rows to remember for the lace. The pattern is provided in both written and charted form, and is a great pattern for novice knitters. To keep it easy, I give tips on how best to use your stitch markers, how to block it, and row by row stitch counts for the main body to help you keep track of your place. The sparkly Cosmic Blue Label is delicious to knit with (and I firmly believe that sparkles make knitting go faster!).
Directions are given for both a 1, and a 2-skein version. The large needles result in great sized shawls, no matter which version you knit. You’ll cruise right through it!
My lovely assistant designer conceded to model both shawls for me, and I’ve got to say, even though it’s one of my simplest patterns ever, I’m super proud of it. It’s relaxing, gratifying and beautiful. Just what I needed. And the big shawl? It’s really big. 5’2″ knitter for scale =D
The Blue Brick 