Memories of Fibre Festival

Last weekend I made my annual trek out to the Manitoba Fibre Festival, and I was happy to see this year was bigger and better than ever! I absolutely love that farmers bring in some sheep and alpacas to the festival. Being an animal lover, I always head right over to the animals to see who wants to be friends with me. I bonded with an Icelandic sheep who pretty much made my day :)

It was great to see local vendors who I have come to be familiar with the last few years all set up and doing brisk business! I also noticed that there were more vendors from out of town than I had seen in previous years. It seems our little festival is gaining notoriety, which is great! More choice is always a good thing.

I went to Fibre Fest this year on a bit of a mission to find something nice for the Done in Love CAL I wanted to work on. And when I saw the beautiful transitional skeins that Cog Yarns out of Saskatchewan had to offer, I knew immediately that I had to have em!

Of course, the camera never fully picks up how gorgeous these colours are...but here they are nonetheless. I've laid them out in the order I am going to use on the sweater, with the grey on the left at the top, and then ending with the charcoal on the right.

My husband has proved to be a pretty loud complainer when I use his arms to hold the skeins for me when I roll them into balls, so I've moved on to the chair method instead. It works quite well except for when my assistants get a little frisky with the yarn!

Thanks for holding the chairs down for me ladies! Ah, life is never boring when you have cats. So thanks to Fibre Fest, I'm now rolling on the yoke of my sweater and so far so good :) Already looking forward to next year's Fest, of course!

New Lookbook! Yarnspirations F/W 2017

Another week, another lookbook! One of our favourite sources for patterns, Yarnspirations is prolific for publishing and this time it's the Fall/Winter series. Shall we dive right in?

Cozy Crochet Hat
Not a bad-looking hat but a bit toooo long in the slouch for me.

Check Yourself Crochet Scarf
This one seems to continue in the vein of the blanket scarves we saw last year: wide and long items intended for lots of snuggling into when it's quite chilly. Not bad, but not revolutionary. And thankfully NOT as epic as most of the blanket scarves!

Box Stitch Knit Hat
I feel like the box detail on this is lost due to the size of the box stitch pattern. Maybe smaller boxes?

Dipped Cable Knit Pullover
This is a great-looking go-to sweater, and the "dip" contrast brings up the interest. You could also easily do this in a single colour or a tweed, which would show off the cables. Since the yarn is Caron Simply Soft, I'd suggest one of their new tweeds for this!

Sleeveless Knit Turtleneck
I love this one, but I'm all about high necks when the weather turns chilly. Sleeveless knits are a great way to help wardrobe pieces do double-duty.

Crochet Granny Cardigan
The sleeves look a little wide on this one, but I like the single-colour grannies in the front; it's a nice way to incorporate classic crochet motifs into a more sophisticated pattern.

Big Easy Crochet Pullover
I'd have to see this one in action to get a better feel, but for a casual bulky pullover, it looks pretty good. Nice to see this one done in crochet instead of knit, too.

Brioche Accent Knit Cowl
I was really surprised to see brioche - it's not often that free patterns push the boat out on technique like this! The colours don't wow me, but that's easy enough to change.

Big Collar Crochet Coat
This one could do with a wee bit more shaping, I think, as well as adding more buttons to have it close further up. Otherwise it's just a glorified cardi and not much of a coat, I'd say.

Crochet Blanket Ruana
I really like the plaid in this, though I often find ruanas to use a daunting amount of yarn. Still, I'd be quite tempted on this one!

Texture Mix Knit Tunic
This is not a tunic, but aside from that, it seems a bit busy with all the textures. I'd rather have three sweaters, each with one of the textures, because I like all three...but not together.

Great Curves Knit Poncho
While I don't know if I'd style this one with a maxi skirt, I'd enjoy it as a pullover item with jeans and boots. I like the quilted style of the stitch, and it seems like a nice classic piece.

Kaeleigh's stand out patterns:
Favourite pattern: Sleeveless Knit Turtleneck
Gotta make it for myself: Great Curves Knit Poncho
Makes me wish I did more crochet: Crochet Blanket Ruana
No thank you, please: Big Easy Crochet Pullover

Bernice's stand out patterns:
Favourite pattern: Texture Mix Knit Tunic
Gotta make it for myself: Crochet Granny Cardigan (but I'd modify the sleeves to make them narrower)
Makes me wish I did more knitting: Great Curves Knit Poncho
No thank you, please: Sleeveless Knit Turtleneck (Turtlenecks are NOT a good fit for my body type, haha)
And kudos to Yarnspirations for offering a good mix of knit and crochet clothing items!

Sweater Season!

With September arriving, I've noticed the weather is...changing. When the mornings start getting cooler and the nights come earlier, I start wanting to make sweaters. Lots of em!

I thought I'd share what I've got in my project queue for fall:

First up, I'm hopping on to this CAL. I'm a big fan of KT and the Squid's designs and have made a few of her cardigans: the Leudinghause and the Kram. Both turned out lovely but I have to say out of the two the Leudinghause is my favourite, I love the look and it was more fun to work up as well. This time around the CAL is of a pullover and I'm pretty pumped to give it a crack! I have a few skeins of Koigu yarn that Kaeleigh gifted to me that I think will make a beautiful trim for it, and I'll be on the lookout for a nice yarn for the body of this one at the local Fibre Fest coming up next weekend!

Next on deck is the Reminisce Sweater by the Velvet Acorn. Kaeleigh alerted me of this pattern, and while I've often admired her beautiful patterns, when I saw this one I purchased it IMMEDIATELY. I see myself making a few of these down the line. It's SO beautiful and looks mad comfy. I love that she designs her patterns in knit AND crochet. It's rare to see that!

And finally, I've REALLY been itching to work up the True North Knit Jacket by Yarnspirations. This one has been on my mind since we reviewed the Canada 150 Lookbook and last week I took the plunge and bought myself a Knitter's Pride interchangeable needle set in preparation for this! I think I'll hold out on this one for a little while cuz I don't feel very confident my knitting skills are at the right level to tackle this, but of course Kaeleigh is a great knitting resource for me. Hopefully with her help I can get through it! I couldn't help but spend a good portion of my daydreaming time yesterday thinking of what colours I'd like to make this one in.

So that's what's been on my mind as I start preparing for the long Canadian winter and all the extra time on the couch it brings! I'll be sure to share my progress with you as I go along.