fiber arts friday

Oh yeah, have you heard about Fiber Arts Friday? Go check it out over at Alpaca Farm Girl. There's plenty of super cool people to read about, and I'll be participating any Friday I have anything interesting to say :)

P.S. typing one-handed with a baby on your lap is difficult :)

knitter (mis)behaviour

I should have made it possible to be in Toronto yesterday for the whole Yarn Harlot madness. As it is, I will have to be content with the photos. Set aside an hour or two, pour a hot cup of coffee or tea, and enjoy!

pincushions

I finally feel ready to start my pincushion project. I have three new toys for my shop, so I can give knitting a break for the day. I have all the materials I need, and my sewing machine is back home. I have the whole day off, with only a couple minor errands to run. Now I just have to come up the the design!

That's not entirely true - the design has been very clear in my mind for a couple months now, I just haven't had the chance to see if it will actually work. Fortunately, I need a couple pincushions myself, so if the first few tries don't work out so well they will still be useful.

I'm hoping to sell a few of these in my Etsy shop, and maybe give away a few as Christmas presents. Mostly I want them for craft sales which I'm hoping to do next year. I'm not sure what sales yet because I only know of one in Montreal, and I haven't looked into getting involved with that one yet. I want to do one in the Spring and one in the Autumn, if I can manage to get enough toys and other stuff made.

By the way, is anyone finding this blog interesting or useful? I know that sounds horribly self-conscious, and probably a bad thing to admit out loud, as it were. I'm simply feeling like the stuff I write is not catching anyone's attention, although that might be due to the derth of comments (except for my friend Dilu, thanks!). I suppose I started writing this blog to help others make my toys, with tutorials and such, which I've been too busy to put together yet. I also wanted it to be a way to communicate my love of crafting and life in general, with crafty people in other places that I'll never get to meet.

Creative writing has never been a strong skill of mine. I suppose I thought practice, a strong desire to write well, and love for what I do would be enough to make this blog successful. There are so many blogs out there that make me laugh out loud, or teary-eyed, or just plain excited about creating something beautiful and unique. I'm not ready to give up yet, but I might set myself a time limit of say, five months from now. If by the end of March, I still feel like this is a useless exercise and my writing has not improved, I will say so long. I will keep the blog open only to announce shop updates and other goings on.

*sigh* Okay, I think that's enough emotional dumping for one day. Off the the sewing machine!

sweaters

I've only knitted myself a shrug so far, and I've never worn it, so some day I will probably take it apart to knit something else. But I haven't given up on sweaters yet. Sweaters are my most favourite type of clothing, and one of the reasons I love living somewhere with long, cold winters. I am determined to knit more, and keep knitting them until I am good at it.

Of course, there is the problem of finding a pattern I like, and I'm terribly picky. The other problem is the cost of the yarn for a big project like that.

Thanks to another blogger, I came across a sweater pattern I love. And thanks to Knitpicks, there is nice and affordable yarn I can use for it. But I was wondering if any of you have tried their swish superwash and/or Andean silk yarn. Which do you think is nicer? Or do you know of another yarn in the same price range which is super soft and warm?