Blogging can Resume....

The last month I've been so focused on finishing my Christmas knitting I haven't blogged anything!! I have posted regular progress photos on my Instagram account but didn't take that extra bit of time to get a proper blog post together.

Here's a collection of photos of what I've completed for my Christmas Knitting :-)



Clockwise From Top Left : Christmas Nerd Socks for my Brother, Mindless Zombie Socks for my Husband, Cinderblock Christmas Socks for my Dad & Scrappy Casbah Socks for my Mom


Clockwise from Top Left : Modified Free Style Cap for my Husband, Free Style Cap for my Mom, Garnet Scrappy Socks for Laura (my brothers girlfriend) & Stockholm Scarf !


Clockwise from Top Left : Red Hot Pink Socks for my Sister, Cinder Block Socks for Greg (my sisters husband) , a Stripy Sweater for my Dad & a Modified Lady Sunnyside for my Mom

I also knit a bunch of Regular Guy Beanies to include as gifts as well :-) I was able to use up my handspun as well.



I was so bad and didn't take a collective picture of the toques before I wrapped them up :-(

I'm so glad I was able to finish everything I wanted to accomplish for Christmas knitting this year :-) I took a day off from knitting on Christmas Eve and for the whole night I was thinking about what I should be knitting next ;-) I may need to detox a bit!!

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year :-)

Happy Knitting :-)

Nesting for a Knitter...

I've been in nesting mode for the past 2 weeks. I was obsessed with getting the spare room set up for our (soon to be) new baby. Then getting all the Christmas decorations up. Then finishing up all the knitted Christmas gifts. I still have one more to go. Plus some extra hard if I have time ;-)

Now it's time to focus on clearing up some of my queue. I've been planning on knitting my mom a sweater for just over a year. She picked out a pattern and I picked out some stash yarn. I was going to modify the pattern she wanted to the style I wanted but it would require too much brain power and when your pregnant your brain doesn't function. So I convinced her that Lady Sunnyside was the way to go. Which she agreed to and she loves the sweater. My brain thanks her ;-)

So I casted on this sweater about 2 weeks ago and have been knitting on it religiously as my primary project.

Here's a few progress photos from the last couple weeks :




Working on the raglan. It was getting pretty brown in central Alberta. It was getting colder and there was no snow so it was the perfect time to be knitting a cheery green project ;-)




I was able to squeeze in some extra knitting time when my toddler decided to go down for a rare nap. I think my dogs were even excited that she was down for a nap ;-)




I got the waist shaping done. I still might add a bit of increases to the waist shaping but I'm going to wait until after I finish the sleeves to make that determination. Us French / Ukrainian ladies have a little extra junk in the trunk ;-)




I was able to finish off the first sleeve last night before I went to bed. So I can start on the second sleeve. Then once the second sleeve is done I can get going on the body. I like to knit my raglan sweaters this way so I can accurately gauge how much yarn I have left and use it to my advantage for extra length, if needed. I like longer sweaters so when I sit down it doesn't ride up!

I love this pattern :-) It's so easy to knit, well written and easy to make minor modifications to. The only modifications I have made so far is to increase the amount of stitches to the arms so they are more of a loose fit and to eliminate the button band to the pattern to add a button band at the end. So a knitted on button band. I'm hoping for a bit of a shawl collar but I'll decide when I get there. It's more important for me to get the extra length than the shawl collar.

Hopefully I'll have more to share shortly :-)

Happy Knitting :-)

Calgary Fibre Arts Fair!!

Ok, I am so late writing up this blog post about the Calgary Fibre Arts Fair! I was so excited to be there and visiting with the vendors and taking pictures. I had a lot of fun! I was there just shortly after it opened at 9am and it got pretty packed within the hour!



Here's some of my favourite booths :-)

The first booth I always seem to stop in at is Chasing Fire Ceramics! Her optimism is intoxicating and she has beautiful clay buttons!! I must have chatted to her for about 15 minutes while I was deciding on my button selection!






I also saw this gorgeous bird yarn bowl there! I know it probally sold shortly after I left!



I ended up buying these gorgeous buttons from her :-)




So gorgeous!!

My next goal was to stop at the Wacky Windmill booth. I totally didn't get to their booth soon enough at the Fibre Shindig last month so I had a goal to swoop in there and find a gem ;-)




I love the wooden windmill she uses for her displays :-)




Look at all these beautiful skeins! How do you decide?




This was my favourite part! The fiber :-)

I ended up choosing a braid of crazy fiber.




It was the last braid so I scooped it up. I would have boughten more but I have this thing my husband calls a "budget" :-(

One of my favourite booths for merchandising is Vivid Yarns booth. I loved the country feel to her merchandising!




She had so many beautiful skeins. She has an Etsy Shop with so many beautiful skeins! I've added her shops to my favorites and foresee a purchase in my future ;-)




Like how cute is this merchandising?

Then I stopped at the Clay & Cloth booth. I bought a gorgeous green yarn bowl from her at the Fibre Shindig last month and I use it all the time. I absolutely love it. So I had to pop in!




I had to take a photo of her beautiful yarn bowls!




She also had these super cute knitting / crocheting / sheep mugs that were selling out fast. She only had a few left while I was perusing her booth!




I ended up buying some clay buttons from her. The color of the glaze is unreal :-)




I don't have a project in mind for these buttons yet BUT that just means I need to buy some matching yarn ;-) I do not foresee a problem with that :-)

Sea Turtle Fiber Arts was another booth that I wanted to visit. Their booth was so busy at the Fibre Shindig that it was nearly impossible to get into it when I was there!




I perused their booth for about 20-30 minutes. I had such a hard time choosing a skein for myself! I ended up going with the first skein that caught my eye!




I love how bright and vibrant this skein is. I'm hoping to knit the cuffs and toes in the contrast yarn and the rest with the orange skein.

Yarn Ink had a rainbow of yarn goodie ness in their booth! It was always packed and I had to do a couple rounds before I was able to get in there. So not a problem for this vendor ;-)




I had a hard time choosing a skein so I decided to pick out some fiber instead. She has a lovely store in Etsy where there are detailed photos of all her crazy colorways :-) I foresee a purchase from her Etsy Shop in my future as well ;-)




I picked out 2 small braids in a colorway that is completely out of my norm for colors. I'm super excited to eventually have the time to spin these up!

The Danware booth is obviously a favourite for many knitters / spinners / fiber artists!! I did quite a few rounds at the Calgary Fibre Arts Fair and it was PACKED all the time! And for good reason! They have gorgeous craftsmanship!!




I had to take a photo of these gorgeous drop spindles. They are well made and balanced very well. My friend, Marlene, bought a zebra wood drop spindle from him at Olds Fiber Week and she loves it!




So many gorgeous wooden yarn bowls, drop spindles, fiber notions!! They have a Facebook page with photos of their work and they keep their followers updated with when they'll be attending fairs or shows they also have an Etsy Shop as well. Check them out if you can. The owner is a really sweet man that I always end up chatting to him for a long time when I see him :-)

Another crazy busy booth was the Ancient Arts Yarn booth!! This was the only picture I could get. Which was a fleeting picture before the next wave of customers came into the booth!




Her colorways are so inspiring and well received by all knitters :-) I love this wall of yarn!




The Fawn and the Fox was a super cute booth with such wonderfully made project bags! Keep in mind that by this point I had $0 left. Which was disappointing on my part BUT she has an Etsy Shop that she has regular updates for. Totally check it out :-) I know I will be!




The last booth I was able to visit was the Morengo booth. She was spinning yarn on her wheel and there was a little crowd around her checking out her local naturally dyed yarn! Super cool! Totally check her out on Instagram or on Facebook! She has an intoxicating personality and it a really sweet lady :-)




This was an awesome fair and I can't wait to see how much it can grow for next year :-)

Happy Knitting :-)

Waiting patiently for the Calgary Fiber Arts Fair...

I am being so patient! I can't wait for the Calgary Fiber Arts Fair! I've been following it since its creation last year and this year is going to be bigger than last years :-) I was hoping to be a vendor this year but shortly after finding out I was approved, I found out that I was expecting and I knew I want going to be able to get enough inventory made up for this awesome fair! I was mostly worried about the unknown and I didn't want to stress myself out since I'll be hormonal and pregnant ;-) I'm hoping next year will be more attainable for me :-)

Anyways, I still wanted to contribute to this awesome fair so I contacted the creator and asked if I could do some Giveaway donations :-) Of course that was ok!

I decided to donate 3 giveaways and each giveaway would contain a full set of Small, Medium and Large Snagless Stitch Markers :-)



Small Bloodstone, Medium Green Line Quartz and Large Hematite



Small Bloodstone, Medium Green Line Quartz and Large Petrified Wood.



Small Bloodstone, Medium Green Line Quartz and Large Petrified Wood.

I am out of stock of Bloodstone, Green Line Quartz and Petrified Wood Snagless Stitch Markers (as part of my inventory reduction in the previous posts) but I have many more lovely gems and minerals available if you check out my Etsy Shop :-)




I LOVE my packaging!! It's everything I envisioned! Simple, Rustic and Whimsically Prairie! I hope the lucky recipients of them at the Calgary Fiber Arts Fair on Nov 7 will love them :-)

If you are in or around Calgary this Saturday Nov 7, I would highly recommend attending. There are fabulous vendors and lots of beautiful fiber goodies!! Cost to get in is $5 per person/ adult or if you bring a winter coat or hat and scarf combo as a donation to Project Warmth you can get in for free :-)

If you decide to take any of their courses you can also get in for free! A list of their courses is in their Ravelry Group or on their website!

To get more information on the Calgary Fiber Arts Fair you can check out their Website, Ravelry Group, Facebook or Instagram !!

Hope to see you there :-)

Some Progress Pics :-)

I finally got around to taking some pictures yesterday! I was up fairly early! My husband was going duck / goose hunting so he was up at 5am which meant that I was up too.

You try sleeping in when you have 3 dogs ;-)

So I grabbed a coffee and started knitting on the Black Cinder Block Socks. The last of the Christmas 2015 Socks :-) Although I had to turn on some bright lights to see what I was doing, I was determined to get going on them. The faster I knit these, the faster they'll be done!




This is an early morning progress update on the first sock! I dedicated all my knitting time to knitting on this sock yesterday and by the time I was ready for bed I had gotten to the heel :-) I did take a little break to make a cake yesterday ;-)




I cheated a bit. The cake is from a box but the icing is homemade and it's heavenly!! I used THIS RECIPE and I've added it to my recipe box ;-)

I've already cut a slice with my morning tea as a pre breakfast snack ;-)




I even couldn't help but line up my daughters minions in the photo ;-) They look just as obsessed with this cake as I am!

I was also able to take a FO photo of the Scrappy Garnet Socks I casted off the other day.




Yarn: Zen Yarn Garden Bamboolicious in an OOAK colorway and Tanis Fiber Arts Purple Label in Garnet

Pattern: my own mish mosh of my fav toe up techniques. If your interested check out my project notes HERE :-)

I loved both bases as they are both incredibly soft :-) I know these socks will be loved!

On today's docket is to keep knitting on the Black Cinder Block Socks. I'm going to start the slip stitch heel shortly! I'm going to relax for a bit and enjoy the pre toddler chaos by drinking my tea watching something other than cartoons ;-)

Happy Knitting :-)

So close...

I was able to finish knitting the Garnet Scrappy Socks meant for my brothers girlfriend for Christmas the other day. They look fabulous and I'm hoping to get some FO photos today. I should have taken them sooner but I haven't been feeling up to it. Just a bit sleepy as this child is sapping all the energy out of me ;-) but I only have under 2 months to go :-)

The good news is that since I finished this pair of socks I only have 1 more pair to knit up!! The bad news is that they are black socks for a men's size 12 foot! Sigh!! I'm going to knit on them a bit today to see if I can make a dent in the first sock!

I've decided that since I can't work on black socks for too long without being increasingly bored, I've casted on a Stockholm Scarf with the remaining 1.5 skeins of Tanis Fiber Arts Yellow Label in Velvet ! I had knit one last year for my sister and had intentions of knitting another one for a gift but didn't have enough time. So this year the other one will be knit for a gift as well :-) The pattern is a 4 row repeat and it is quite meditative, so I made some good progress on it the other day :-)




This photo is horrible since it was taken in the evening. Long after the sun has gone down. I'm done about 1/4 to 1/3 of the scarf. It looks fabulous and I'm positive that it will be loved :-) This will be my "I'm sick of knitting black socks" project ;-)

I'm hoping that if I buckle down I can whip the black socks out in the next couple weeks! Then I can work on finishing a couple other projects before I start on my SELFISH KNITTING!!!!! I may be a little excited to be knitting for myself again ;-) But one step at a time :-)

On another note; I was able to get a day of dyeing in last week and listed some beautiful skeins in my Etsy Shop :-)



Hydrangea on Wild Rose Sock



Tropical Paradise on Wild Rose Sock



Woodlands on Wild Rose Sock



Dirty Frog on BFL Sock



Woodlands-2 on BFL Sock



Woodlands-1 on BFL Sock

I am so pleased with how these hand painted skeins came out :-) I haven't hand painted yarn in a little while. My last batch of yarn was kettle dyed (which was completely new for me) and was a pleasant experience as well! I love how it allows my creativity to flow :-)

Happy Knitting :-)

Stitch Marker Sale :-)

As I'm getting closer to my due date I've been getting into the nesting mode. I've been organizing and moving around furniture in my house to make room for this new baby in our spare bedroom. Which means that we no longer have a spare bedroom for guests but now it's a dedicated nursery! It just barely fits the crib, change table, rocking chair and of course all my fiber hobbies ;-)

I have my loom back in the closet, and have all my stash neatly packed away in the closet as well. I have all my Prairie Dye Studio yarns and stitch markers neatly stored in its Rubbermaid container with easy access.

Since organizing my inventory for my business I figured I would do a little inventory reduction in regards to stitch markers. I've been making them up as the orders come in but I know that won't be feasible once the new baby comes along in December. So I've decided to have an Etsy Sale in all Snagless Stitch Marker sets to clear them out before this baby is born ;-)


Unfortunately, I won't be doing any custom orders as whatever is in my stock and inventory is what I have. I have some sets pre made up in sizes and some where you can still choose the size of your liking. But as I get closer to my due date I'll be making up all the stitch markers into either small or medium sizes as they are what I sell most and I'll ship them out as they sell :-) It's just easier for a sleep deprived mom if I can just package up the order instead of making them up. I'll need that time for some shut eye when I can get it ;-)

All sets in my Etsy Shop are $6 plus shipping.

I'll still be dyeing up the odd pot of yarn when I get a chance and adding it my Etsy Shop but it won't be a priority for the first bit.

Thanks so much for your understanding and enjoy the Snagless Stitch Marker Sale :-)

Happy Knitting :-)

The Fibre Shindig :-)

Yesterday I was able to convince my husband to do a quick day trip to Calgary so I could go to The Fibre Shindig.




I had found it by chance on Facebook and though it would be a fun thing to check out! I'm so glad that I went. There was about 20 vendors and lots of friendly Fibre minded people :-)

I immediately did a couple rounds to see the vendors and what they had.




My first stop was Chasing Fire Studios! I bought some clay button from her last year at the Calgary Fibre Arts Fair and they worked perfectly for my Lady Sunnyside :-) I knew she usually sells out quickly so I wanted to ensure that I got a few sets of buttons :-)

I selected a diz and 2 sets of buttons :-) I had a hard time deciding and spent quite a bit of time perusing her stock. I had to ask if she was going to be at the Calgary Fiber Arts Fair and she said she was so I'll be popping in again to check her out ;-)




The next booth I checked out was Sea Turtle Fiber Arts. They had many beautiful saturated yarn colorways and it drew me in right away :-) This booth was a little packed and I had a hard time getting a photo but I fell in love with that lime green skein in the picture! Sadly the budget was a little tight but I'm hoping they'll be at the Calgary Fiber Arts Fair in 3 weeks ;-)




Then I popped in to the Clay & Cloth booth. She had the most beautiful yarn bowls.




Now I'm not a yarn bowl person. A lot of the yarn bowls I have had in the past and have check out previously are (what I feel are) too flimsy. They tip easily and I felt they would require too much effort in fiddling to make them worth while. Although I couldn't stop myself from looking at her yarn bowls!!




This was a short list of my favorites!! When I started picking them up to inspect them I was quite surprised at how heavy they were! Which is what I wanted. Less tipping :-) I ended up picking this one to come home with me:




The price was very reasonable too. I paid $40 at the show for it :-)

After creeping out the Clay & Cloth booth for an exorbitant amount of time ;-) I went to the Dragonfly Dyewerx booth. This is a regular pit stop for me as she has lots of crazy colored yarn and the colorway names are fabulous!




This was just a portion of her booth and it was BUSY!! I chatted with the Ms. DragonflyDyewerx for a bit as I am always smitten with her yarn! I always make it a point to check out her booth may it be at Olds Fibre Week or the Calgary Fibre Arts Fair and she usually has her stock picked through quite fast!

I was able to pick out a beautiful skein of Sparkle Sock in There Was A Pastry Mishap!




There were so many options for fiber, dyed sock blanks and of course yarn!!

One of the last yarn pit stops was The Wacky Windmill! I should have went to this booth first since it was right next to the Chasing Fire Studio booth but it was very busy.




This is just a small portion of their booth and the fibre was beautiful!! I have a few skeins of their yarn in my stash and I've been waiting for the perfect project for them :-) I'm hoping they'll be at the Calgary Fibre Arts Fair so I can make sure to pop in before it get busy!

The last booth I popped in at was the Made By Knitty Pie booth. She had some wonderful project bags and beautiful quilts!!




It was wonderful to have a bit of chat time with a fellow prego lady and we are due around the same time :-) I bough a fabulous project bag :-)



Ok, I know I said this was the last booth that I visited but on the way out there was one more stop!




The Purple Gecko Studio had these fabulous stitch marker earrings! I thought they were super cool! I usually just wear studs in my ears but if you love statement earrings these are for you!! :-) She also had a lot of cute cotton drawstring bags in funky fabrics too!

So here's a picture of all my purchases that my budget would allow and I'm so happy with them :-)




Overall The Fibre Shindig was a raging success and I will be attending next year!

Next up? The Calgary Fibre Arts Fair in 3 weeks! I'm totally going ;-)

Happy Knitting :-)