Seasonally appropriate weather, hooray!

If you're not tired of hearing it yet, I really think it's finally spring! Certainly everything seems to be behaving that way: we have five new calves, I've put some of the screens back in the windows (and then OPENED them!), and the last of the snow is black with dirt and very sulkily receding. I started tackling some yard chores - not a moment to waste - but wrangling wooden snow fence might be my new least favourite chore.

Some volunteer plants in the front garden!

But Kaeleigh, you ask, what does all this have to do with knitting?!

Nothing, aside from that it's nice enough to knit outside and that always makes me happy. I've been doing test-knits for two of my very favourite designers, Ambah O'Brien and Tin Can Knits; I'm still so chuffed to be picked! They're both coming along nicely and I love my yarns :D I chose one of my hand-dyed DK colourways for the TCK test and it's so cool to see my yarn knit up, especially since I wasn't sure how it would look. No pools yet though!

My Lovetta test for Ambah O'Brien :)

I've got some designs of my own planned, including one for MB Fibre Fest that I'm really pumped about - who's got suggestions for tech editors?? Usually I just edit my own patterns so I'm not sure how all that works. I also have a big ol' box of bare yarn waiting to get at my dye pots and that is ALWAYS fun!

In addition, Bernice and I hit up the Keystone Alpaca Classic this past weekend in Brandon (with our husbands in tow); although we missed pretty much all of it because we thought it was a two-day event and by 1pm on Sunday everyone was leaving, we enjoyed visiting with a farmer we'd never met, and admired many beautiful alpaca! We've both agreed the "multicoloured" ones are so fun to look at and imagine their yarn :)

It promises to be a VERY busy summer but it should also be loads of fun!

Crochet Cardigan - Winnipeg Jets Playoff Edition

When do you do when you're crafty AF and your ALSO your team's headed to the playoffs? You make a sweater in your team's colours so you can show your team spirit in the most handmade of fashions of course!

A few weeks back, I was browsing around Ravelry and experienced love at first sight when I laid eyes on the Mountain Forest Cardigan. I immediately purchased the pattern and went straight to the craft store. I knew I didn't want to go with the colour scheme modeled in the pattern...and it didn't take me too long to imagine myself cozied up for the playoffs in the Jets colours!

So here's what I came up with...

So this is my super comfy team spirit cardi. I finished it the night before Game One and gave it a washing and blocking just in time for Winnipeg's first playoff win. I used Patons Classic Wool Worsted in Navy as the Main Colour, with the accents in Light Grey Marl, Dark Grey Marl, and Bright Red. It has a great weight and thickness to it, perfect for these chilly, winter-like spring days we've been having. It even has pockets so you can keep your hands warm!

So I'll pretty much be living in this...except for DURING games, when white must be worn for the Winnipeg Whiteout! Apparently, you have to wear white even if you are only watching at home, according to my husband anyway!

I'm loving this sweater so much, I've started another in Patons Classic Wool Worsted Cognac Heather as the main colour. I'm going to switch up some of the details as I go to keep it interesting, can't wait to show the next one off to you all.

Have a great weekend everyone...and of course...GO JETS GO!

Milestones and more yarn

Good Monday to you all! If you're on my side of the Atlantic, good morning - if elsewhere, good afternoon and evening :) My husband and his dad repurposed a lovely display cabinet (originally for guns) for my yarn and as I was setting it up yesterday, I realized some of my yarn hadn't been listed in my Etsy shop, so today is hooray for new listings! You can check them out here: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/ThereandBackYarn I'm particularly fond of that bright chunky green; when I was a kid, it was a Sunday treat when my grandparents would take us to Chicken Chef, a fantastic central Canadian fried chicken chain (for which I still have a massive soft spot!), and their kids' menu dessert was green Jell-o with whipped cream. I thought of that as I was dyeing this yarn, and I think it came out pretty spot on!

In addition, my first published pattern, Hunter's Orange, hit 500 downloads! I'm so pleased that 500 people have noticed and been interested in the pattern to download it, and there are even a few projects on Ravelry! Your support means so much to me - without it, I wouldn't be able to do all this fun yarn stuff - so I'm very thankful for everyone who takes an interest in my patterns and yarn :)
Well it wouldn't be a springtime blog post if I didn't make a snarky comment about the weather, so I guess I'd better fit that in before I go bring in MORE wood for our woodstove. Warm temps any time now!!

Slackers or what?

You haven't heard a lot from us lately - sorry about that! I don't know about Bernice (or you all), but this tail end of winter always makes me impatient and procrastinatory; you know, the "I'll do it when it's warmer" attitude. Well there's no use holding our breath for that eh? At least not in Manitoba.

Regardless, I have been up to some stuff! I finished my Lionheart hoodie with the Tanis Fiber Arts DK in Rose Grey that I frogged from a failed sweater (ironically, another Jane Richmond pattern - I love the sweater, that one just didn't fit me at all!), and am *just about* finished a Portage cardigan in my old stashed TFA DK in Aquarelle - can you tell I had a TFA obsession a few years ago? I do love their colours!! And now that I'm focusing on stash busting, a lot of that yarn is coming onto the needles.

I also published an accessory collection! You can find it here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/lone-pine/patterns I'm really pleased with how they all turned out; I wear the mittens and toque more often now that it's not -30C, and I've been wearing the cowl loads since I made it. It's good for indoors and out so it gets more use than the other two - I really appreciate my Arika cowls but they have loads of fringe so it kinda gets into stuff when I'm doing dishes, cleaning, sitting with my cats...the Lone Pine cowl is just a nice comfy tube so it pretty much just turns any shirt into a turtleneck. I'll definitely be making more.

And in not-really-yarn-news, I'm now the local librarian! As a kid, I pretty much lived at the library, and in the last few years, I've been searching for ways to get closer to libraries as a career, but without having to spend money we didn't have on upskilling (a Masters in sociology is great but it's not quite suitable for getting librarian jobs). This job is a perfect opportunity for me to get into the community and do some good stuff for our lovely area, whilst petting lots of wonderful books. I'm so pumped!

So. That's what's up on this side of the valley. That, and ducks. We have two ducklings (well they're feathering out pretty good, so almost full grown) and we're about to hatch like 15 chickens and six more ducks, so that'll keep us busy - and calving starts in just a few weeks! Then it's spring for sure :)