Pinterest Love

I'm not sure if you have heard of the awesomeness that is Pinterest, but  I'm in love. It's the perfect visual bookmarking tool, allowing anyone to keep track of inspiring links, images and ideas from around the web. It's going to be huge there's no question about that. Both Tanis and I have our separate Pinterest accounts, but we thought it would be amazing to have  TFA Pinterest account to have a centralized place to bookmark all things TFA. Come check it out!

Right now it's still in the beta mode, so in order to get an account, you need an invitation from an existing Pinterest member. if you would like to join, let me know (and send me your email address)- I'll send you an invite! We'd love to follow your pins and boards, too.

Year in Colour Club - July

What do die-hard knitters like to knit in July? My guess is small, portable projects that keep your hands moving without causing you to pass out from heat stroke!

The July pattern for the TFA Year in Colour Club was designed by Patti Waters. The Aquarium socks are a great mix of fun summery motifs, but in a warm wooly yarn that you'll be wanting to wear all winter. 

I had a lot of fun playing around at my friends pool taking these pattern shots. Thanks goodness Chris played nice and agreed not to take any full body shots, I was quite a site rockin' my two piece with my hand knit socks!

Club memberships are still available, new members will receive the January, March, May and July shipments all together. 

TFA Tuesday: Jewel

Pattern: Undina and Lir

TFA Yarn and Colourway: Yellow Label DK in "Jewel"

Top Tier Knitter: Monika (Ravelry ID)



Totally Awesome Because: I love how her daughter refers to it as a princess dress, because that's exactly what Monika created- a dress fit for a princess. the colour is bright and vivid and looks beautiful on her daughter, and the dress looks super comfortable. She looks so happy wearing it! The project page can be found here.

A swatch

I've had an idea for a sweater bouncing around in my head for months now. When I first got excited about this potential design idea, I knit a swatch. I've had this swatch kicking around for months, and now I've finally started putting it to good use. I've measured, I've re-measured, I've calculated and tweaked some numbers, and now my sweater is finally in progress. I knit the swatch in TFA Yellow Label DK weight yarn in the Stormy colourway, but the actual sweater is being knit in a new for fall colourway that is still a secret. This sweater concept actually inspired the colourway, more on all that soon.

Taking a break

Chris and I are taking a break from work for a couple of weeks. Of course I'll still be knitting, and I'll definitely be checking my e-mail and posting the occasional blog post, but we're going to try and spend as much time as possible doing as little as possible ;)

Any orders placed will be shipped when we get back to reality the week of August 8th. 

TFA Tuesday: Comodidad

Pattern: Pogona

TFA Yarn and Colourway: Blue Label Fingering Weight in 'Olive'

Top Tier Knitter: Kyla (Ravelry ID)

Totally Awesome Because: Stephen West's shawls are always stunning, and often show off hand dyed and tonal yarns to perfection. This shawl illustrates the point beautifully- the pattern and the yarn are stunning together, Kyla made a spectacular choice. And I love the olive colourway- it always seems a little different each time you look at it, and can even sometimes take on different strengths of the various tones and colours based on your colouring or what you might be wearing. Something about Olive always seems deep and a bit romantic (in a wandering the moor sort of way), perfect for a gorgeous shawl like this. Project page is here.

What's my name?

Earlier this summer I was struck with the desire to design and knit a super easy, super cozy, two toned striped scarf. I know, it was a very specific desire, not just a scarf, not just something stripy, I knew exactly what I wanted! Something big and cozy and squooshy, yet lacy! Garter stitch stripes in Green Label Aran weight yarn with eyelet's that looks good on both sides is exactly what I had in mind. I knit most of this scarf at Julie's cottage over the Canada day long weekend. I want the scarf to have the option of being an infinity scarf, so I'm going to sew on fabric covered buttons. I purchased this pretty seabreeze and spearmint floral, thinking that it would make the perfect Granny chic buttons... but now I'm thinking that it's less granny chic and more straight-up Granny. So the search for the perfect fabric continues. 

I was thinking of calling this design sea-mint, since I think that they are both pretty words, they are pulled directly from the colourways used in this scarf, and they kind of sound nice together. But sea-mint also sounds a heck of a lot like semen, and I'm kind of immature, so I'm not sure I can live with that. Any suggestions?

My blue garden

Remember this glorious hydrangea shot I shared with you earlier this spring? Well, now the potted hydrangea that lives next to my front door looks more like this:

The new blossoms are a bit lighter and the old blossoms are the most interesting faded shade of green and denim. It's very cool. 

And I am thrilled to report that the hydrangea I planted in my back garden last fall is finally blossoming! When I bought it the petals were that perfect blue/purple shade, but I was told not to get too committed to that colour since they can bloom differently once planted depending on the acidity of the soil. 

In an attempt to sway the odds in my direction I tossed fifty cents worth of copper pennies and a couple rusty nails into the hole I dug before I planted the hydrangea. I had read online that it might help to make the soil more acidic, even though it makes me look like a crazy person. 

But it seems to be working! The blossoms are blue and purple with just a hint of pink and I am very happy.

TFA Tuesday: Retro Style Charcoal Shrug

Pattern: Retro Redux Shrug

TFA Yarn and Colourway: Green label aran weight in 'Charcoal'

Top Tier Knitter: Susan (Ravelry ID, Blog)

Totally Awesome Because: I'm always so excited to see a great FO in one of the new colourways. The wonderful dark grey looks good with just about anything you pair it with, and I'm a sucker for shrugs that are great for casual, every day wear. I would totally wear this with everything! This is the perfect time of year for a great shrug like this. Details are on her ravelry project page, here.

New pattern sneak peak

I finished knitting a new pattern I've been working on last week. I'm currently in the process of writing up the pattern notes and figuring out all the sizing (oh the math!) I don't want to give it all away, so I'm just sharing this silly photo that Chris took of me posing behind the clematis. This pattern should be ready for release by the end of the summer.

Out with the old to make room for the new!

As you could probably tell from this post, team TFA is working on lots of new things for the coming months. In order to make room for all the exciting new things we've got in development it's time to say farewell to a few old friends. 

As of August 15, the following colourways will no longer be available: Ultraviolet, Amber, Blueberry and Moss as well as the multi's (prism, glacier, meadow, rhythm, lightning, harvest, tulip and gem) I am going to focus on developing my collection of tonal colourways, it's what I love to do and what I think I do best. 

The Fiddlehead Mitten Kits will also be discontinued.

It's very hard for me to say goodbye to these old friends, they've been good to me, but it's time to move on. If you'd like to stock up on any of these soon to be unavailable products you can do so until August 15th.  

Video interview

Head on over to the Yarn On The House Blog to watch 17 minutes of me talking about yarn and enter to win a TFA sponsored giveaway! I have to admit, I'm feeling a little self conscious about being a dork in the interview, but it was lots of fun and it made me realize that I can go on and on about yarn and colours forever, I really do love my job. 

One of the things that Veronika talks about in the interview and in her blog post is how much she likes the layout of my website, the fact that it's organized by colour. What do you all think? Do you like this system? Do you find it easier to shop or would you rather shop by weight? The website is due for a bit of facelift soon, so I'd love to hear your feedback.

TFA Tuesday: Fighting Uruk-Hai

Pattern:  Her own, improvised

TFA Yarn and Colourway: Purple Label Cashmere Sock Yarn in 'Velvet'

Top Tier Knitter: Jenny (Ravelry ID, Blog)

Totally Awesome Because:  Tonal and varigated yarns always seem to really pop when use in textured stitch combinations, but let's sing the praises of stockinette!! simple, unfussy stockinette shows all the beautiful hues and tones of this colourway in Jenny's mitts, which are gorgeously simple, yet add a special something to her wardrobe. Her project page, with notes on how she made the fingerless mitts, can be found here.

TFA Braintrust Power Conference

Here in Canada, we had a lovely long weekend celebrating Canada Day (July 1st), and snuck off my family's cottage. Tanis and I (along with our crackerjack husbands, a couple of Brits, and the TFA mascot, Stella) settled into the long weekend to do some serious business planning for TFA. See how serious?

G called it the TFA Braintrust Power Conference.Very, very serious. I mean, we're practically taking over the world right now. You just don't realize.

Oh, and did I mention that we did a photo shoot for an upcoming pattern? Because we totally did that too. Still a few weeks away from a full pattern release, though! I'm working on the pattern and sizing. As you can probably tell, it's a summery, hot-weather knit!

Last weekend I spun.

Last weekend I took some roving from my stash and turned it into yarn. I felt great for minimizing my roving stash, but now my yarn stash has grown! I plan on gifting the green skein. I spun it with a friend in mind who happens to love green. Both roving's were dyed by Pigeonroof Studios.