Club - March 2014

I think that many of us would agree that this has been possibly the longest and coldest winter of all time. In the past I've featured a more springy green colourway for March and have always mentioned something about "the promise of spring being just around the corner". This year, not so much. Spring is nowhere in sight. So, to totally rebel against the chill we've cooked up a fiery hot Fiesta orange shade for this months Club shipment. And added a dash of sparkle no less! Nothing can keep us down!

In classically awesome Julie style she's designed two patterns to make the very most of every last yard of 1 skein of TFA Cosmic Blue Label yarn. The Causerie Hat and Mitts set feature a beautiful ribbed cable. The fingerless mitts feature a really cool knitted on cuff (see how the cables go around the cuff? awesome right?) and in case you've never tried that particular technique before, Julie has made a great little video to walk you through it step by step.  

Club memberships are available all year long, it's never too late to sign up! Join now and you'll receive your January skein and March skein along with the next shipment of Club yarns in May. And don't forget! This year we're offering a "patterns only" option. So if you'd like to knit yourself the Causerie Hat and Mitts set with stash yarn, you totally can! 

Club - January 2014

The 2014 Year In Colour Club is in full swing! The January Club shipments went out earlier this month, the pattern has been sent out and projects are already starting to pop up on Ravelry, which is always the most exciting part! This year we've kicked off the Club with a bright and cheery pink shade I've called Orchid. Dyed up in Blue Label Fingering Weight yarn, a simple sock project is just the thing to get us all revved up for the 2014 knitting season (by "knitting season" I obviously mean the entire calendar year.) I designed the Cavalcade Socks to feature a few very pretty, yet deceptively simple, lace motifs. 

Club memberships are available all year long, it's never too late to sign up! Join now and you'll receive your skein of Orchid along with the next shipment of Club yarns in March. And don't forget! This year we're offering a "patterns only" option. So if you'd like to knit yourself a pair of Cavalcade socks, you totally can! 

Club "patterns only" option now available

$30.00

The 2014 Year in Colour Club is off and running! The January Club shipments have all been mailed and today I sent out the Club pattern and set up the "Patterns Only" buying option. This option is a great alternative for those who want all the fun, excitement and exclusivity of a Club at much less of an expense. It's also a great option for those of us who have lots of special single skeins stashed away and need single skein projects in various weights delivered to our inbox 6 times a year! What a great way to knit your way through your stash. 

Patina Socks and Framed Slouch patterns

$5

Patina Socks 

Ravelry pattern page here.

$5

Framed Slouch

Ravelry pattern page here. 

Now that we've rolled into the new year and Chris and I are deep into getting the January 2014 Club packages ready to go out, the patterns from the 2013 Year In Colour Club are ready for wide release. The Club patterns are exclusive to Club members for the duration of the Club calender year, so when we rang in the new year we also marked the end of the exclusivity clause on all 2013 patterns! I've made my Patina Sock pattern and my Framed Slouch pattern available for sale on Ravelry. I'm working on the Papaya Shawl pattern and will have it up as soon as it's ready.

As far as the exclusive 2013 Club colourways... I haven't decided which ones will be joining the permanent collection yet. There were a few fan favourites, but I've got a bit more work to do before I'll be able to commit.

The first of the 2014 Club shipments will be going out soon! You've got until January 10th to sign up and ensure that you get your January Club yarn asap. Join the TFA Year In Colour Club here!

Happy Monday!

Club - November 2013

Can we just take a moment to admire how gorgeous this photo is? The autumn light, the coat with those knits and Julie's hair colour... gorgeous! 

This month's Club shipment officially wraps up the 2013 Year In Colour Club - and what a year it's been! I think a proper Club wrap up post is in order, but for today let's focus on November's awesome yarn/pattern combo shall we? The Pemba Mitts and Headband designed by Julie Crawford to use every last yard of the November Club Colourway Saffron. We featured Yellow Label DK Weight yarn this month, lots of yardage, lots of potential for perfect cozy accessories. 

This month was exciting for me for two reasons:

#1: yellow's are always challenging for me - but I LOVE this Saffron colourway. 

#2: Julie surprised me with not one, but TWO designs for this lovely skein. I mean this in the best possible way - Julie is thrifty. Not cheap, just not wasteful. I love that about her. I think that it would really irk her to design a pattern that only takes 60% of the skein - that's 40% of the yarn gone un-used! So she went the extra mile and gave us a coordinating headband so no yard of yarn gets left behind!

We really hope that you've enjoyed the Club this year. We've got lots of exciting things planned for next year already, here's hoping you can join us for another year full of colour!

Year In Colour 2014 - memberships now available!

This photo has nothing to do with the 2014 Club... just a pretty yarn shot!

Here we are! The 2014 Year In Colour Club memberships are officially available! Click on over to the TFA Club page to read all the details and to sign up!

The 2014 Club will run very much like the 2013 Club has. Members will receive a different, single skein pattern, delivered via email, designed by Julie or I and custom Club colourway every second month. It will feature 6 different yarn bases ranging from lace weight to aran weight (not necessarily the same bases as this year) and you will get a different colour of the rainbow each month - literally, I'm going through the whole spectrum next year!

The one difference from years past is that this year I have decided to offer a "patterns only" option. This will be a great way for knitters to join in on the fun without breaking the bank. The patterns only option is not yet available for pre-order, but when it is you'll hear it here first.

Club - September 2013

The September installment on the 2013 Year In Colour Club was the first time we've featured a worsted weight yarn. This month the packages contained one luscious skein of Orange Label Cashmere/Silk Worsted weight yarn in the Mosaic colourway. Until now our focus has been on featuring bases with lots of yardage, but this time of year, when everyone is so busy, a quick worsted weight project is just the ticket! 

I've been experimenting with unexpected layers of colour recently. I'm fascinated by what happens when you layer blue over orange or yellow. In normal watercolour rules, yellow plus blue would equal green, but when you add in a wool/cashmere/silk yarn base and then experiment with setting the dye instantly upon application you can get some pretty rad results. The Mosaic colourway is one of those really neat colours that has a little bit of everything and can't be boxed into one category. 

I designed the Framed Slouched for this skein. The combination of crisp twisted stitches and cushy cables is both flattering and extremely comfortable. The perfect thing to knit going into fall!

Club - July 2013

When Julie and I divvied up the designing duties for this year's Club the July instalment was allotted to me. With Rowan due in April it seemed like a wise idea to plan for the July pattern ahead of time, so plan away I did. I had the whole thing designed and had even knit up a small template of the shawl I had in mind. We ran out of time and hadn't set on the colourway in advance however. So, when Chris and I finally found the time to develop the July Club colourway we settled on a bright, summery coral. We did a bit of experimenting and finally landed on the Papaya colourway. I love everything about it, it was all working out. There was one small problem however, I didn't think that my original pattern idea was what this colourway really called for. I wanted something modern and graphic, I would have to start fresh. 

I'm really glad that I followed my gut and worked out this new pattern, completely inspired by the Papaya colourway. The Papaya Shawlette combines a crisp cable with graphic lace. I can't say what it was exactly about this colourway that just screamed for crisp, neat design elements, but as soon as I held the final skein in my hand I had a clear vision of what I wanted it to become. Isn't it neat how things work out like that sometimes? Every colour has it's own personality and can almost tell you exactly what it wants to be. 

The July instalment featured TFA Red Label Cashmere/Silk Singly Ply yarn. I never tire of working with this base and think that a shawlette, worn wrapped around the neck, snuggled up to the face, is the perfect thing for this amazingly soft base. 

It's never too late to join the Club! Join now and you'll receive the January, March, May and July Club colourways and patterns along with the next batch of Club shipments in May.  

Club - May 2013

Can you believe that we are already half way through the 2013 Year In Colour Club! Crazy. The May installment of the Club featured a skein of Pink Label Lace Weight yarn dyed up in the gorgeously soft and subtle Moonmist colourway. These soft shades of baby blue, lavender, pink with a bit of green are so springy. 

Julie designed this light as air Fairy Mist cowl to accompany this special skein. Wrapped loosely around the neck this cowl is a terrific spring accessory and a fun simple knit, perfect for this transitional time of year.

Club - March 2013

The winner of the Botanical Knits giveaway is..... Kylie! (aka: purples) Congrats!

I cannot seem to get away from the colour green for March! This is the third year that I've done a green shade for the March installment of the TFA Year In Colour Club (see 2011's Clover and 2012's Sprout), I guess it's officially become a tradition! This year, however, I mixed things up by doing a more variegated colourway. With hits of blue and pink a skein of this Patina colourway has a little bit of everything. Gorgeous in the skein, and even prettier knit up! 

March's shipment featured a skein of Blue Label Fingering Weight yarn and a sock pattern designed by me! Designing with variegated yarns is always a challenge. I decided to focus on crisp textures to allow the motifs to shine through all that colour. I always look to add a few special details on the heals, the toes, to add a bit of knitterly intrigue to a simple sock pattern. I'm really happy with how my Patina socks worked out and hope that you'll love them too. 

The Patina Sock pattern is currently exclusive to 2013 Year In Colour members but will be available for all to knit in 2014. We're hosting a Patina Sock KAL in the TFA Ravelry group right now, wether you're part of the Club or not you should pop in and check it out!

It's never too late to join the Club! Join now and you'll receive the January and March Club colourways and patterns along with the next batch of Club shipments in May.  

Club - January 2013

The first Year In Colour Club shipment of 2013 has been sent out and I think that I can confidently say that it's been well received! I had figured that most would be pretty excited about receiving a yummy skein of luxurious Silver Label 100% mulberry silk yarn... and paired with Julie's stunning pattern, I'd say it was a home run! 

The Aerie Scarf by Julie Crawford is a beautiful, feminine, lacy scarf that makes the most of one special skein of silk. The lace patterns focused on the ends of the piece keep the knitting interesting, and the stockinette section in the middle makes for a really cozy fabric to wrap around your neck while giving you a little break from having to focus on charts!  

This months Boysenberry colourway is a really pretty mix of pink, red, burgundy and purple. Just the thing to brighten up your day this frigid January!

It's never too late to join the Club! Sign up today and receive your January yarn along with the next Club shipment in March!

2013 Club memberships now available!

I changed the homepage photo collage on my website, pretty and colourful!

The 2013 Club memberships are officially available for purchase on my website. Exciting! Most of the changes that I'll be implementing in 2013 have already been mentioned in previous posts and can be found in full details on the Clubs page, but here is a quick rundown:

• Variety! 6 different yarn weights and bases will be featured throughout the year. 
• Patterns! Patterns will be distributed electronically via Ravelry rather than paper copies. hopefully this makes things simpler for all our members to keep their patterns organized. No need to have a Ravelry account to make the most of this feature, just a working e-mail address. 
• Julie and I are the star designers! We've divvied up the design responsibilities and have a game plan, again, variety is key here. 

Just like last year I've introduced the memberships at the same price, however due to the elevated cost of the fibers we'll be featuring in 2013, the price will be raised to reflect this on December 15th. So if you're considering treating yourself to a Club membership for Christmas, now is the time to buy! 

Next year promises to be just as colourful and fun as ever. Maybe the best year yet!

TFA news items and a Giveaway!

Yes, I'll be giving something away at the end of this post, but first... a little bit of TFA Club news to share.

The 2012  TFA Year In Colour Club is wrapping up. Memberships for this year will remain open until the end of October, at which point the 2012 memberships will close and the 2013 Club memberships will become available. 

For 2013 I will be doing something a little bit different, rather than focussing exclusively on fingering weight yarns I'll be diversifying the Club to include 6 different TFA bases ranging from my Blue Label Fingering Weight yarn to my Orange Label Cashmere/Silk Worsted weight yarn. The other major difference next year is that all patterns will be designed by TFA! Julie and I are sharing the workload and together are designing 6 unique single skein accessory patterns. The price of the Club will be adjusted to reflect the variety of yarn bases, however same as last year, there will be a price incentive for people to sign up early! Full details will be released next week when the 2013 Club goes live. 

And now... it's giveaway time! All summer long we had a Stella Collection blog tour running with each stop doing a giveaway, well, it's finally my turn! Leave a comment on this blog post for your chance to win the Stella Collection plus 2 skeins of Blue Label Fingering weight yarn in your choice of any of these colour pairings to knit your very own Adhara Shawl. Any of the shawls featured in this collection would make for the perfect November KAL project!

Left column, top to bottom: Deep Sea and Peacock; Frost and Seabreeze; Lilac and Dove.

Center column, top to bottom: Sand and Gold; Shadow and Atlantic (the original pairing); Pink Grapefruit and Sunset; Stormy and Shadow.

Right column, top to bottom; Spearmint and Lemongrass; Garnet and Velvet; Brick and Chestnut.

A winner will be announced on Saturday, stay tuned!

This giveaway is now closed, thanks for entering!

Club - Sept 2012

The September installment of the Year in Colour Club featured this gorgeous design by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting. These socks, called Arching Leaves, feature an impressive combination of leafy texture and scrumptious cables. Works of art!

This month has seen me pull out my wool socks more than once, so it's the perfect time to get excited about sock knitting again! I cannot wait to wear my hand knit socks all winter, and with socks as pretty as this, I think that my feet would be extra warm and happy. Pretty socks make for happy feat right?

The September colourway is called Spice and is dyed on my Blue Label Fingering Weight yarn. Everywhere I look these days I'm seeing this colour in the nature around me. A beautiful warm orange shade that is just perfect for this time of year. 

Club - July 2012

The July instalment of the TFA Year in Colour Club was a pretty exciting one for me. This months designer is Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed! Kind of a big deal. I was really looking forward to working with him, and the resulting collaboration exceeded my expectations. So professional, so friendly and of course, such a great designer! Jared and I worked together to come up with this light grey Smoke colourway, and dyed up in the Red Label Cashmere/Silk Single ply yarn, it's so soft and dreamy. 

The Guernsey Triangle is a beautiful, geometric, triangular shawl featuring simple but dynamic knit and purl combinations. The look is so crisp and clean and so wearable. I just love it!

Club thoughts

It's already time to start planning for next year's Year In Colour Club. There has been some talk about it in the TFA Ravelry group, and I'm considering doing something a little bit different for 2013.

So far I've focused on fingering weight yarns for the Club, with the idea being that each skein is so versatile that the possibilities are really endless. However I'm thinking that next year we'll branch out and feature a different TFA yarn base each month, so you'd get to sample 6 different bases throughout the year. Pretty cool right?

I'd really love to hear your thoughts on this. Would you like to see a more diverse yarn Club, or do you like the versatility of fingering weight skeins? Are the patterns a deal breaker for you, or would you be interested in a yarn only Club? If you do want patterns, must they be printed, or would you prefer to receive digital copies? And what about price point, so far I've done my best to keep the price down by focussing on more affordable bases (mainly blue label) but by diversifying and including more expensive yarns (like Orange Label, Pink Label and Silver Label) I'd have to increase the price.

All ideas, suggestions, opinions are welcome! I really need your help!

Oh, and I should mention, I have considered running two Clubs simultaneously, however I'm pretty confident that it's more than I could manage... I've got other ideas about how to make more one of a kind skeins and patterns available but for now I'm focussing on one Club at a time.

Looking forward to hearing what you all think!

Pretty yarn shot!

Club - May 2012

I think it's safe to say that it's officially summer here in Montreal. The weather has been amazing (though I'm always a little nervous when it's this nice and hot this early in the season... what does July have in store for us!?) Summer has a way of eating away at our knitting mojo. I knit with wool yarn all year long, I don't care how hot it gets! But one thing that I do appreciate in the summer are smaller projects. One skein wonders that don't weigh me down. This months Year In Colour Club pattern is just the thing! The Cachou Cowl, by Hilary Smith Callis (aka: the Yardniad) is light and airy and is perfect for warm weather knitting. The Thrills colourway is a really pretty soft purple with shades of pink and blue. I really wanted to mention how apropos it was for the season in my purple posie blog post, but wasn't ready to give away the colour just yet, so I bit my tongue. ;) 

This cowl has a really beautiful scalloped edging. I love how it softens the linear trellis lace motif.  

Can you tell that I have a lot of fun doing these photo-shoots? I start off all serious with my best model faces but it always degenerates into full-blown belly laughs.

Club - March 2012

psst... don't forget to enter this weeks giveaway for your chance to win an arm-full of gorgeous yarn!

The March shipment of the TFA Year in Colour Club featured an exciting new yarn base that is, for the meantime at least, exclusive to Club members. This yarn is 75% merino, 25% silk and has that awesome combination of squishy and shiny that can only be found in a yarn of this blend. 

The Sprout colourway is a mossy, moody green that I'm just loving right now. Julie is the featured designer for March, and she's all about this kind of complicated green shade. I say "complicated" because it's not just a crisp and clean green, it's got lots of undertones of yellow and brown, it's dynamic! Can you tell from the photo's that I really love this scarf? The Sencha scarf is the kind of thing that really makes an outfit. And that fringe! I'm obsessed with the fringe. It made me want to dance.  

It's not too late to sign up for the Year in Colour Club! If you sign up now you'll receive the January and March kits along with the May shipment. 

Club - January 2012

The 2012 edition of the TFA Year in Colour Club has officially launched! The first installment of Club kits have all gone out and (I think) all been received! We have a lot more members this year then last, but I managed to get all the kits out on schedule thanks to lots of help from mom. We kicked off the year with something a little bit different for me, a brown colourway I've called Truffle. I think that most people associate TFA with bright colours, lots of blue, so doing something a bit more subdued and earthy hopefully surprised (and delighted!) a few members. Don't worry, there will surely be some brights and probably even a blue colourway sent out sometime this year, but for January, I chose to do something different. 

The accompanying pattern, designed by Hannah Fettig, is the Flying in Formation scarf. Simple and beautiful with a nice dose of texture, exactly what we've come to expect from Hannah. This first shipment also included a bonus tote bag which I'm quite excited about. I'll share a photo in a separate blog post, today it's all about the yarn and pattern!

This photo doesn't quite capture the true colour of the skein, it's darker and more purple/less red in real life.

It's not too late to sign up for the Club! Sign up now and receive your January Club kit with the next shipment in March. 

Year In Colour Club - November

The November installment of the TFA Year In Colour Club featured this gorgeous hat pattern, the Asteroidea Hat, designed by Kirsten Kapur. I'm crazy about the combination of lace, cables and slouch! 

The November colourway was a real challenge for me. I happen to hate dyeing reds! They are so hard to get right. But this Cranberry colourway... well, I love it! It's deep, rich, red. Perfect for this festive time of year!

Memberships for the 2012 Year In Colour Club are now available, be sure to sign up before Dec. 15th in order to get the reduced rate (the Club price will increase by $15 on Dec. 15th).  

To see what we've been up to all year check out the Year in Colour Club blog page here.

And with that, the inaugural year of the TFA Year in Colour club has officially come to an end. It's been a fantastic experience and I'm really looking forward to next year! Above is a photo that I snapped of all the 2011 colourways together, don't they make a pretty collection?