Tag Archives: knitting

The power of a compliment

Those who’ve known me for a while know that I have a hard time accepting a compliment. I’m better than I have been, but I still have to work hard at not negating the compliment being given.

I’ve been working on a commissioned design for the last couple months. This weekend I attended the KW Knitter’s Fair, where I got to show it to the commissioner. Other people at the booth got to see it as well. Everyone was impressed and complimented me on it. One women got to try it on and that’s when people really liked it.

For me it was amazing seeing how well it was received and also seeing the finished piece on someone else. It really brought the design to life for me in a way that it hadn’t been before.

Now I’m stoked to get the photography sample for the pattern done!

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The pattern is with my test knitter, and if it all goes as planned the pattern will be available for the beginning of November.

Getting all that positive feedback this weekend is helping get this pattern through the home stretch. The hardest work has been done, now it’s doing all the last fiddly bits to get it ready for sale.

Thank you to everyone who gave me a compliment on this piece this weekend. It means a lot to me that you appreciated my work.

5 Counties Seminar Teapot Challenge – Mitred Square Scarf ideas

detailIn my last post I talked about the 5 Counties Seminar that is coming up in September.

I’ve picked out the fibres that I’ll be using in the scarf and have done some sampling of the first group of fibres. These will be the main colours in the scarf, with the second group of fibres being the accent colours.

Continue reading →

Hands on creativity

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Niagara Falls, Canadian side. 2003. Pinhole photograph.

A lot of my life has been doing things creatively with my hands that are visual in nature.

I love being able to create things that people can see and enjoy. I like being able to get right to the heart of a craft and learn it so I can use it to express myself.

During the late 90’s, early 00’s I did photography as a hobby and a small business. I was a member of a cooperative gallery in Toronto called Gallery 44 – Centre for Contemporary Photography. I took part in several group shows and had two solo exhibitions with them.

During that period I gained a love of old photographic and alternative processes.

One thing I really liked were pinhole cameras. I built myself one out of black foamcore. It was designed with a simple shutter mechanizm that I could control and it could be strapped onto a brace that had a screwmount on it to attach to a tripod. The back of the camera held a 4×5 film holder. I marked the sides of the box with guidemarks so I could compose the picture fairly well before making the exposure.

My last solo show was in 2002 and it was a mixed media show. I had six or seven pinhole photographs on the wall and a series of knitted articles that were featured in or related to to the photographs.

hp_bkgrnd

Gallery show, Blue sweater in foreground with photographs behind.


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One piece in the show was a large skein of yarn, looped over a rod, that was being knitted into a scarf. I tried to come in each day at lunch or after work and do a few rows on the scarf. I also made the needles from wood dowels topped off with glass beads. I finished half of the scarf during the time of the show.

The two main knitted pieces were a sweater I had made for my ex partner and one I had made for myself. His sweater is the one you see as my banner image. You can see a picture of him wearing that sweater here.

The sweaters were hung from the ceiling, facing each other, like they were having a conversation. People could walk between them to get a closer look and to also maybe get a sense of what the conversation might have been.

All the photographs were taken around Toronto. Most of them were showing me knitting on an item that was displayed. An example was me knitting on the sleeve of my sweater sitting on the ledge of the stairs at Union Station. The picture of the other sweater was the one exception. The sweater was already finished and the picture was me wrapped up in it at my old house.

Most of the pictures took between 3 and 20 minutes to expose. I usually tried to time my knitting so I could finish at least one row during the exposure.

fountain1   whales1

In the first photograph I believe I was knitting on a shawl, sitting on the fountain in St. James Gardens, King Street East between Church and Jarvis Street. In the second photograph I was knitting on a scarf sitting on the whale statues at 121 King Street West.

A weekend in the country

pan2It’s summer here in Canada. Time to start heading to the cottage on the weekends and summer vacations and time for a little guide on fibre fun you can bring along.

General thoughts
Keep your projects small and light. Bring several! Have things you can do while traveling and ones for when you are at your destination. Variety is good! Pack things in sealable containers or ziplock bags to keep them from the elements, especially if you are camping.

Knitting
Small and simple knitting projects are great to bring along, like socks, hats, scarves and mittens. Travel time is a great time to work on your projects.

Spinning
Spindles are great for traveling with. Supported spindles, like a Russian spindle (or here) or a Takhli, can be used in the car during traveling.

If you are staying at a cottage or someplace indoors then a folding spinning wheel is also an option. Most should fit in the trunk or back seat.

Fibre prep is something you can also do. Hand cards and a dog brush are pretty portable. You can go through a bunch of fleece in no time on a relaxing evening.

Dyeing
Dyeing can be a fun activity for the whole family. Before going you can do research with the kids to find out what plants are available where you are going and figure out which ones you want to try. Once there you can get them to help gather and prepare the materials and help out with the dyeing.

My partner and I sometimes do natural dyeing when we are up at the cottage. We bring the dyepots, mordant, stir sticks and fibre/yarn with us. I would suggest using only Alum and cream of tarter, as these have the least impact on the environment. Also, make sure to only use as much mordant as needed for the amount of fibre you are working with. This will reduce the amount of left over mordant that will be disposed of.
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We use either lake water or spring water from up the road. We use the propane stove in the kitchen, but you could also use a campfire to do the dyeing. You have to watch closely with a campfire to make sure the dyepot doesn’t boil.

We usually collect our dye materials from the area. A good rule of thumb is to never collect more than 10% of a plant in any given area. For example, if using leaves, only take leaves from 1 or 2 branches of a tree and spread out your collection over a large area.

Used plant material can be used for compost or spread out in the bush to decompose. Left over mordant baths can be disposed of onto sandy areas, like a dirt road away from the house and septic system. Do not pour it down the drain into the septic system! Left over dyebath can usually be disposed of this way as well. Make sure to dilute both baths with a lot of water before getting rid of them.

Weaving
There are several very portable options for weaving and traveling

Weavettes and small weaving frames
These are very portable hand help frames. The small ones are great for working on while traveling! You can whip off a square in 15 – 30 minutes.

Backstrap looms and ground looms
These can be setup before you leave and used once you get to your destination.

Weighted warp loom
This is a very simple version of a weighted warp loom. All the material can be kept in a medium sized container.

Some of my favourite fibres

I’ve spun quite a lot of different fibres over the last ten years. I haven’t met one that I absolutely hate. There are many, like man made fibres, that I’m not fond of, and others, like angora, dog and cat, that I’m allergic to in varying degrees. I’ll spin them – I just don’t find it enjoyable.

Angora is one I wish I wasn’t allergic to. I react to it fairly quickly. Being around a bunny for 15 minutes will get me quite stuffed up. Working with the fibre may take less time then that. If I know I’m going to be spinning with Angora I’ll take an antihistamine a few hours before starting to spin.

This is a small list of my top fibres to spin with.

Wool
Polwarth is a wonderful wool to work with. It is bred from Merino and Lincoln sheep. It is almost as soft as Merino, with extra length in the fibres coming from the Lincoln heritage. I find it a bit easier to spin then Merino because of the length. It gives a soft, springy, cushy yarn. Most of the sheep are white, but it does come in other grey and black shades.

It blends nicely with other fine fibres. I especially love polwarth and silk blends.

year2

This is my second year project for my spinning certificate program. It is the Pretty Thing Cowl by The Yarn Harlot. It is made from light and medium grey Polwarth. This started as raw fibre, was washed, flicked open and combed to give a light top. It was then spun worsted on my Lendrum wheel to make a 2 ply lace-weight yarn.

0365  at_handspun1

These are a couple examples of spindle spun projects I have made with Polwarth and silk blends. The scarf is a 2-ply worsted weight yarn. The hat is a 3-ply worsted weight yarn.

Other animal fibres
Alpaca
There are two main types of Alpaca: Huacaya, which have a fine, dense, somewhat crimpy lock, and Suri, which have a long, dreadlock like locks.

Both of these come in a variety of natural shade, with multiple shades and spotting possible. Huacaya are the most common in North America, with a few breeders raising Suris.

The fibre can range from very fine micron counts to fairly course. Fibre fineness is usually fairly consistent on an animal.

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Alpaca and silk is one of my favourite blends. Suri alpaca and silk can make very luxurious lace yarns.

my_shawl

This is a shawl I made from a blend of 67% grey Huacaya alpaca top and 33% bombyx silk top. It is a 2-ply yarn. The silk I used was a handpainted top in two colourways. One was a mixture of blue tones, the other of red tones. I carded the alpaca and silk on handcards to make rolags to spin from. The blends with the blue silk mix I re-arranged to make a colour progression of grey, denin blue and purple. I left the rolags from the red mix in the order they were carded, so there is more of a mix of shades for those rolags. I spun up the blue mix as one ply and the red mix as the other, then plied them together. The result was kind of a watercolour affect.

Mohair
Mohair from Angora Goats is another fibre I like working with. I don’t often spin 100% mohair, but use it in blends with other fibres. It adds strength, warmth and lustre to blends.

Kid mohair is usually the finest fibre. It is from the first and sometimes second shearing of the goat. After that it usually is considered adult mohair. The fibre generally gets courser as the animal ages.

I fell in love with Mohair when I started using yarns and fibres from Wellington Fibres. They have several very yummy blends, including alpaca/wool/mohair and mohair/wool/silk blends. The silk blends are pretty neat. The silk is added in as a streak of fibre, rather then being fully blended in. It gives a nice highlight when spun up.

red_sock

This is not my own handspun, but it is something I plan on spinning one day. The red sock on the very right is made from Wellington Fibres fine 3-ply sock yarn. It is a 60% mohair, 40% wool blend, about 380 yards per 113g / 4oz skein. It was made on 2mm / US 0 needles at 10 sts / inch. The pattern is Nancy Bush‘s Gentleman’s Fancy Sock from her book Knitting Vintage Socks.

Silks
There are several silks available to spinners today, but Tussah and Muga are my favourites. Their fibres has a bit more of a tooth on them than Bombyx silk and they are easier to spin because of that. The fibre also tends to be a little shorter – between 4 and 5 inches long, then bombyx, which is usually 6 to 9 inches long.

Both fibres are naturally coloured. Tussah is a nice honey colour and Muga is a rich golden colour. Tussah also comes in a bleached version, which usually isn’t as soft as non-bleached. Tussah dyes up wonderfully with both natural and chemical dyes. Muga can also be dyed, but it requires a little more work as the surface doesn’t allow dyes to penetrate as well as Tussah.

shawl_closeup

This shawl is spindle spun Tussah silk that was handpainted by Nancy Finn of Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks. The singles were spun on a spindle and wound onto a spinning wheel bobbin when the spindle became to full. Additional full spindles worth were attached after that. The singles where then chain plyed from the bobbin onto a plying drop spindle to give a final 3-ply yarn that included long colour sections.

Video blog day – Welcome to the Display Room!

Today I’m taking you through a tour of the Display Room from the Ontario Handspinning Seminar 2013 that happened June 14 – 16, 2013.

You can continue the tour by going to the following videos:
Baggie Challenge table
Skeins for next year
Special Projects Competition
Skeins Competition pt.1
Skeins Competition pt.2
Just for Fun! tables
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I worked on the display committee this year with one other woman. There is minimal work over the months before the seminar. Most of the work is done at the seminar.

Before the seminar we take care of finding judges for the competitions and planning the layout of the display room. We make sure all the materials needed for displays were passed along to us, gather additional display materials as needed and print updated signs for the current years displays. We also update various forms for the competitions, judges, Just for Fun and Fashion Show items.

During the weekend we are responsible for taking in items for display and competition, setting up the room and displays, helping the competition judges, watching over the displays during public times, helping during the fashion show, getting the items back to the owners and clearing up the display area. Thankfully we have great volunteers helping the two of us with all of this!

We were also responsible for creating the awards certificates, gathering up all the prizes, taking pictures of the winning items, updating the slide presentation for the awards ceremony and handing out the certificates and prizes at the ceremony.

I had an awesome time being on this committee! You do work long hours at the seminar, but it’s so worth it to be able to see all the amazing work that comes it. Plus we are the lucky ones who get to handle all the items and get a good look at them.

Spinning certificate program

five_years

My final projects from years one through five

I’m heading into the sixth and final year of my spinning certificate program. You can see an outline of the years here.

It’s been a pretty amazing journey.

My class started when I was 40. At the time I figured I could do the program then, rather than waiting till I was 46 or 52 to do it. It was also the right time as I wanted to take my spinning more seriously and I thought this program would give me a structured way of learning all this stuff, rather then me trying to find classes all over the place to learn things.

The teachers for our classes are amazing people. Their knowledge and generosity are humbling. And lets face it – the thought of having to grade homework for 25 to 40 students is pretty intimidating, yet they do that, year after year.

Some highlights for me:
All of the dyeing classes. We’ve done both acid dyeing and natural dyeing. These have been a lot of fun and I’ve learned a lot in them.

Spinning woolen. This was probably the hardest challenge for me when we started. I’d mostly spun worsted or semi worsted. Learning to spin light and lofty was challenging. I still don’t spin enough of this and have to retry it each year otherwise I forget how to do it.

Bast fibres. Flax, hemp and cotton. I had tried these before, but it was pretty dismal. Last years class finally made things click and I was able to spin them. I think these fibres have moved up from the “Ugh! Argh!” list to “Ok, that’s not so bad”. I think with more practice I could actually spin enough cotton for a decent sized project – like a shirt or light sweater.

Silk has become one of my top five favourite fibres to spin. The diversity of silks that we have available to spin now is pretty amazing. I also love dyeing silk.

The other other students in the class. We have a very diverse group filled with really amazing people. For the first three years there were a lot of us in the college cabins, which bonded us all to each other. It’s great being able to share with these people, and to know there is a group out there that supports you through getting the home work done and supporting you in your life. I’ve met good friends through this class.

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I thought I would finish off by showing you what part of an assignment from class looks like.

year5_final_yarn_docsyear5
This is from my year five final project. The criteria we had was to make a project using a bast fibre, with at least 150 meters of yarn. After that the choices were up to the student.

I chose to make a crocheted bath scrubby out of hemp. After doing sampling I found that I liked a 3-ply yarn that was the size of #10 crochet cotton. The gold coloured hemp was fairly easy to spin – it was a well prepared fibre. The purple was not a nice experience. There were sections with very short cotton like fibres, and other sections where the fibre may not have been retted very well and were clumped together and hard to draft. The final purple yarn was thicker than I was aiming for, but it worked out fine in the final product. I pretty proud of the final product, thought it certainly isn’t economical. The final project took a total of 71 hours. That includes all the sampling, spinning and making the final project, and doing the documentation and mounting.

You have to document your thought process on the project – what you wanted to make, why you chose which fibres, fibre prep and spinning techniques you did, what worked, what didn’t, and your comments on it. You are also to show and document any sampling you did to get to the final yarn you used.

Part of the final project is to show a mounted skein of the final yarn, plus the final object.

For the mounted skeins, you need the following:

  • fibre samples (raw, washed and processed if you do all that work)
  • a 10 yard sample skein, tied in four places with white cotton
  • a 1 inch card of wrapped singles
  • a 1 inch card of wrapped plyed yarn (if final yarn is plyed)
  • finished samples / articles
  • documentation on the yarn, stating it’s purpose, describing the fibre and how you processed and spun it, your finishing techniques, description of sampling or finished item, and final comments / observations on your yarn, spinning, sampling and anything else you may have learned or want to change.
  • for the documentation you need to keep track of how much fibre was used, how much waste was generated, the wraps per inch (WPI) of the singles and plyed yarn, the twist angle (TA), twists per inch (TPI) and yards per pound (YPP) of the plyed yarn.

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Blogathon Guest Post Exchange Day – Post by Joe Wilcox (QueerJoe)

DO QueerJoe

Today’s post is a guest post by Joe Wilcox – Queerjoe.

Most of his postings are knitting and craft related, but he also says a lot about his life in there as well.

I first met Joe back in 2008 for the first Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat, held at Easton Mountain in New York state. He is a kind gentlemen, a big extrovert and all around just fun person to be with.

I hope you enjoy his post! Please go check out his blog – there are lots of interesting things to read and look at there.

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An American’s View of Canadian Knitters
About 28 years I’ve been knitting, blogging about knitting for over 10 years and organizing a men’s knitting retreat for over 6 years, and working in the lovely Province of Alberta for about 2 years, I have had the opportunity to come into contact with many Canadian knitters and have gotten to see firsthand how they differ from their American counterparts.

Disclaimer
Lumping all of the Canadian knitters and American knitters into two distinct groupings will obviously have some shortcomings. And I’m sure Danny’s readers, both American and Canadian will be able to come up with a number of exceptions to my conclusions. Make sure you leave plenty of comments to let Danny and I know.

Top 10 Differences Between Canadian and American Knitters:
1. Canadian knitters turn to knitting as a return to a simpler way of life whereas Americans take it on as another frantic pet obsession they can spend money on.
DO 1

2. Canadians are much more technical knitters and want to understand the exact structure, torque and slant of various cables, or will try out multiple variations on decreases for a knee sock until the shaping of the calf is perfect or will take great pains to calculate the exact number of stitches required to decrease to get a perfect circle using all their college-level math, while the Americans will get it “close enough.”
DO Hat Top
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3. Canadians elevate crafting to an academic pursuit and even have colleges where you can get a degree in spinning. Tell a non-knitting American that you knit, and they’ll picture a crochet toilet paper cover and reply, “How quaint.”
DO 3

4. Canadian knitters tend to either be extremely well-known and popular, like Stephanie-who-no-longer-needs-a-last-name (mostly because of their folksy wisdom…see number 1) or fly under the radar and are visible only to those that search them out.
DO 4

5. Canadians knitters that fly under the radar are well worth searching out.
DO Canadian Knitters

Going clockwise from top left: Barb Brown, Danny Ouellette, Veronik Avery and Ted Myatt.

6. Canadian knitters are not afraid to travel to attend a knitting event. Canadians are generally not afraid to travel.

7. Canadians have little control over taking on all aspects of knitting once they’ve started…I’m convinced that eventually, every Canadian knitter will eventually be raising sheep so they can be involved in all aspects of the craft.
DO 7

8. Canadian knitters are content to sit in a group of knitters knitting without anyone talking. Americans, not so much.

9. Canadians are more literal, straight-forward and earnest than American knitters and Canadian knitters get uncomfortable when pattern instructions are vague or missing things. Having an instruction in a sweater pattern such as “Reverse all shapings for the left side” or “keep knitting until it looks good” irritates them, even though their politeness would prevent them from saying anything about it.

10. Finally, Canadians resent having to use U.S. size knitting needles. Telling a Canadian to use a US8 needle and worsted weight yarn is like nails on a chalkboard. Like Quebecois who pretend not to understand English when it’s spoken to them, many Canadian knitters will ask the needle size in millimeters (or is it millimetres?) even though they know full well what size to use.
DO 10

A short yarn about my spinning

Spinning is something that I’ve taken to fairly recently – only ten years ago.

It was Ted Myatt, again, who convinced me to try it. He tried for a couple years but I resisted. I should have known better. In 2003 he taught me how to spin on a drop spindle. After a few attempts something clicked in my hands and it just made sense. He started me with wool fibre which was fairly easy to draft and spin. Early success encouraged me to continue and I haven’t stopped since.

In a lot of ways spinning works better by not over thinking it. Your hands have to do a lot of repetitive motions, and until they understand them it will feel awkward. Practice will make things easier, and there will come a time when things will just click.

I’ve mostly made smaller projects with my handspun – hats, scarves and a few shawls. I have plans to make a large shawl one day – 2000 yards or more. I also plan to make a sweater for myself. These will be quite an adventure.

I now spin on both drop spindles and a spinning wheel. For some spinning I still find the drop spindle easier to work with. I tend to use them to small projects and for finer spinning.

These are some highlights of my spinning over the years.

2003
Ted finally got me interested in spinning. He taught me how to use a drop spindle and I made a few small skeins on it. And the new fibre addiction began!

2004
Attended my first Ontario Handspinning Seminar in Guelph with Ted.

I learned that spinners are a much calmer bunch than knitters.

I had been going to the Downtown Knit Collective’s Knitters Frolic for a few years. Knitter’s seem to have a feeding frenzy when they go to large sales events. They rush about and grab everything!

Spinners a much more laid back. They wander around, fondle the fibre and yarn more, take their time, talk to the vendors and catch up with each other. It really was a much more pleasant experience then the frolic.

Spun my first lace project on a drop spindle.

2005
I was finally able to get the hang of spinning on a spinning wheel. My spinning guild was doing a demonstration at Allen Gardens in Toronto and they had an Ashford Traditional there. I got a little practice on it and was finally able to keep spinning for over half an hour! I was in heaven!
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In November I ordered my Lendrum spinning wheel from Romni Wools in Toronto. This was the wheel that a lot of friends and people in my guild had and I really liked the modern look and the fact it had two treadles on it.

2006
In February my spinning wheel arrived!

Attended Handweavers Guild of America’s Convergence in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That is an amazing event to attend. It is HUGE!  They had between 2000-3000 people go through over the course of the week. I took a 3 day workshop on everything about silk with Robin Russo. The rest of the time were half day lectures and small workshops. I got to meet Kathryn Alexander and Gord Lendrum at the Lendrum booth. Kathryn was demoing spinning cotton on the Lendrums very fast flyer. She made it look so easy! I got to try out spinning on it with wool. Good lord that thing spins fast!

2008
Started the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners Spinning Certificate Program. This is a six year program. I’m going into my sixth year this summer and will be graduating at a ceremony in 2014 or 2015.

Attended my first SOAR (Spin-Off Autumn Retreat) in Pocono Manor, Pennsylvania

SOAR is an absolutely amazing time. There are about 200-300 participants over the course of a week. You start off with a 3-day intensive workshop that is one one topic, then you have a down day, then 3 days where you can take four additional half day retreat sessions. The shopping is always phenomenal. But it’s the people that really make the event. You learn as much hanging around in the lounge in the evenings with other people as you do during the day. Sometimes you just don’t want to go to sleep in case you miss something!

2009
Taught a workshop on knitting gloves from the finger tips down using handspun yarn at the Ontario Handspinning Seminar in Kingston, Ontario.

2010
Attended my second SOAR at Lake Lawn Resort in Delavan, Wisconsin. My 3-day workshop was on colour blending using a hackle taught by Deb Menz. I took a lace spinning retreat session with Margaret Stove and another one on dyeing with cochineal.

2012
Taught two workshops on spinning silk on a drop spindle. One was at the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat, the other was at the Ontario Handspinning Seminar.

2013
Gave a lecture to the KW Knitter’s Guild on using handspun yarn in knitting. Members of the Guelph Handweavers and Spinners guild supplied me with yarn and finished items to enhance the presentation.

Working on the committee for the Ontario Handspinning Seminar for 2013, being held in Burlington, Ontario.

A little lacey something

dar_blue_detail

After years of crocheting a lot of doilies and lace things in my teens and early twenties I figured I never wanted to do anything lace related again.

WRONG! I guess it must be in my blood. My grandmother on my mothers side was a great crocheted lace maker. I figure the need to make lace comes from her.

I can thank Ted Myatt again for getting me interested in knitting lace. He makes phenomenal pieces on seemingly impossible sized needles. You can see a few of his piece here towards the bottom of the page.

I can also thank Joan Kass and Dorothy Seimens and several other women in Toronto’s Downtown Knit Collective for lots of inspiration and guidance. Joan is an amazing knitter and Dorothy writes some pretty amazing lace patterns.

A man knitting lace is one of those funny contradictions in the knitting world. Big burly guy, tiny needles and light as air fabric. It just shouldn’t be, but it is.

There’s is such a fascination in making something that can be so complex and so fragile looking. The yarn can be quite delicate, but once the piece is made it can usually stand up to a lot of stress when blocking it out.

Lace really needs the final blocking. Until then it just looks like a mass of spaghetti, but once blocked is blossoms into something amazing.

Here are a few of the lace items that I have made over the years.

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This is a small triangular scarf. The pattern is the triangular scarf from Two Lace Scarves by Dorothy Seimens.

The yarn is some of my first handspun lace yarn made on a drop spindle. The fibre is a 70% merino and either 30% alpaca or mohair blend. I left off the tassels from the pattern as I didn’t have enough yarn to make those.

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These are pics of one of the Lotus Blossom Shawls I made for a couple friends. The pattern was originally made for a yarn that was slightly heavier then dk weight. That original yarn was discontinued years ago and Dorothy updated the pattern to use a dk or light fingering weight yarns.

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This is the Faroese Flower Shawl by Lucy Neatby. I purchased this as a kit and made this shawl for my sister. One of the nice aspects of a Faroese style shawl is that there is extra shaping at the shoulder area of the shawl and they stay on the shoulder better then just a straight shawl.

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This is my Diamonds and Roses Shawl pattern. I had a lot of advice from Dorothy Seimens on creating the charts for this shawl. I still like making it! I plan to make it from handspun yarn one day – naturally dyed with either madder or cochineal.

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This is a simple triangular shawl I have designed. The yarn is spindle-spun chain plyed (3-ply) Tussah silk, dyed by Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks. I kept the pattern simple to highlight the colour changes of the yarn. I had tried other lace patterns, but the patterning was lost in the colours.

Some lace designers that you should know:
Margaret Stove
One of the true lace goddesses. She has spun and knit many fine creations. She has also published several books on spinning merino and lace knitting.

Sharon Miller of Heirloom Knitting
Amazing Shetland Lace patterns.

Dorothy Siemens of Fiddlesticks Knitting
A Toronto designer that I’ve known since she first started creating patterns for sale. Beautiful designs, clear instructions and large easy to read charts are the hallmarks of her designs.

Katherine Matthews of Apparknitchick and Ravelry
A local Guelph designer. Ted Myatt introduced us. She has many fun designs.

Anne Hanson of Knitspot.com
Many wonderful designs for lace and other garments.

Birgit Freyer of Knitting Delight and Die WollLust in German.
Many amazing designs.

Judy Marples of Purl Bumps
Many lace scarves and other patterns.