Sunday, December 15, 2013

Gettin' Ready For Christmas!

As I alluded to in my last blog post, I celebrated part of Christmas a little early this year! Because I won't be able to see my immediate family on December 25th this year, my mom, my sister and her fiancée came over to my house for a early celebration last weekend.


Festivities started with Mom baking a batch of fudge in my kitchen - yum! Then we popped down-town to the big Christmas Market for some hot apple cider, delicious food, and gazing at some beautiful ornaments!



In earlier discussions we had talked about skating in Robson Square and walking to the giant Christmas tree at the Conference Centre that day, but after a few hours at the Market we were so cold that we decided to simply head back to my place for a nice quiet night indoors. We played some board games, ordered in dinner, and decorated my teeny little Christmas tree (there is a photo of it at the top of this blog post). My mom and I knitted while my sister worked on some Christmas cross-stitch - what a wonderful way to spend the evening!

We also took the opportunity to exchange presents. I had knit my sister a hat from some of my handspun I completed during Spinzilla:




I have been working on a new hat pattern lately - I used it to create a hat for my brother out of my own hand-dyed worsted yarn;


...and a hat for my dad from some handspun merino and silk I had.


Thanks Kevin for modeling those hats!

Since Mom has taken up knitting again lately, I spun her a skein of SweetGeorgia Yarn's 50% merino wool and 50% silk in the colourway 'Cypress'. We don't know what she is going to make with it yet - it's almost 100 grams of DK weight 3-ply yarn, so there is definitely enough to make a hat or a pair of mitts.


Poor, poor Kevin... I tried to make him a Jayne hat, but I had to recalculate the pattern (I wanted to use DK instead of worsted weight wool). Unfortunately my math was a little off, and I had to cast on another hat, and it wasn't done in time! However, I had to put something under the tree for him... luckily he has a sense of humour and doesn't mind getting his real hat a little late.


The next morning we had a huge brunch of crepes, bacon, and sausages, but the visit was over much too soon. I really missed my brother this weekend too - he couldn't make it over to the mainland because of school exams - boo! I can't wait to see my everyone again in January - I hope all my family has a great holiday, and at least this year we have Skype to help keep in touch!

I hope you are all having a wonderful time preparing for the holiday season!

Cheers!
- Grace


Saturday, December 14, 2013

Grace Takes Manhattan


This November, Mom and I went for a trip to New York! It was a one week girls trip to see the sights and celebrate American Thanksgiving.

We stayed in a hotel within walking distance of most of the big sights we hoped to check out - Grand Central Terminal, Central Park, the Natural History Museum, some outdoor ice skating, and the big Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! Also, there was LOTS of shopping in the area so we could score some Black Friday deals too.

On Day One, we arrived in New York at 8am. We found some breakfast and checked into the hotel - with an niceeee upgrade! We went from sharing a small one bedroom with a queen-sized bed to a HUGE suite with separate living room, kitchenette and a king-sized bed! That made our week there sooo much more comfortable.

In the afternoon, we did a little shopping and found me a decent winter coat from Macy's. After that, the cold never bothered me once.


The next day we took a big walk around the main part of town we were in. We found Times Square, the Theatre District, the Garment District, and saw all the Christmas lights on 5th Avenue. We ended off the tour with a visit through FAO-Schwarz and a peek at the Muppet Workshop!


Our big event on Monday was going to the Rockette's 'Christmas Spectacular' Show at Radio City Music hall. It's was wonderful! Thank you Mom sooo much for the tickets - what a treat!


On Tuesday we went for a giant walk! We walked from our hotel at 38th and Lexington to the Lower East Side to split a bagel and some maztah ball soup at Katz's deli. Then we crossed over to Soho and checked out Purl Soho. THEN we continued our walk into Chelsea, and checked out the Chelsea Market before walking north up the High Line. We found Madison Square Garden and visited the Cake Boss Cafe to nab some dessert for the evening. We took a long route home and relaxed in the hotel room that night.


Now you are probably wondering if ANY of this has to do with fibrecraft. Well, some of it does! This was the first time in years my mom has started a knitting project - a worsted weight scarf!


... and I took the opportunity that night to finish off a handspun hat for my dad too!


Over the next few days we checked out the American Museum of Natural History, took a pedi-cab tour of Central Park on a rainy day, scored some great Black Friday deals at Macy's, and finished off another hat (oh wait, that was just me. But Mom's scarf IS coming along wonderfully!)



And yes, the museum was chock-full of glorious ancient textiles from around the globe! The images before are just a few of the highlights of spinning and weaving that I came across:

Weaving and spinning in Africa:





 Camelids of South America (and an Rhea...?)


Spindles from South America:


My own spinning stayed at home this trip, but I got A LOT of work done on the Goat Coat. I am really hoping to have this projected wrapped up before Christmas!

If you would like to check out more photos from the trip, I have an album of our downtown adventures here and another of Central Park, the NY Public Library, and the Natural History Museum here. 

After a week of fun and excitement, we returned home safe and sound. But it wasn't long before I saw my mom again; we had an early Christmas celebration last weekend to make up for the time around the actual holiday we won't be able to spend together.

I hope you are all having a wonderful December - and I will get a proper post about Christmas up soon!

Cheers!
- Grace

Monday, November 11, 2013

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wow, it has been a long time since I have had a chance to post something! Life lately has been very busy, but also very productive! I have been left with very limited time to jump onto a computer...


I have managed to ply up all my Spinzilla yarn! I am very, very happy with the results. I chain-plied most of the bobbins so I could keep some nice stripes in my final yarn. There were two bobbins of very similar colourways that decided to blend together... it made a very busy but funky kinda yarn!


I am working five days a week now at SweetGeorgia, and I am having a blast. Lately I have been diving into some 'media' related tasks as well as my regular dyeing and packaging duties. I am teaching classes two evenings a week to a terrific group of gals, and although I am having a great time, I now know that I should not book myself so full next year. Speaking of which, I am going to work out my new teaching schedules for 2014 soon - I will keep you posted with details as soon as I have them!

SweetGeorgia had a booth at KnitCity this year, and that was a whirlwind of excitement too. It was fantastic seeing old friends, catching up with students and talking to customers. You can check out more details here on the SweetGeorgia blog (Liisa wrote an excellent recap of the event!)


And finally... what have I been doing at home lately? Sampling, sampling, sampling and getting together class material. I learn a lot from this process, but it is also very time consuming and doesn't give me much exciting stuff to post about!



The Goat Coat has returned to my knitting bag. I had to hit the 'pause' button on it for a while because I has made some serious counting errors, and the idea of restarting a project that requires a cast-on edge of 600 stitches made me a sad little girl. But I finally frogged the old project and now it's back on the needles - mistake free (for now). Maybe I will get it done by Christmas...?!

What's next? I desperately need to update my Raverly pages. It's been months since I have properly documented my spinning and knitting projects, so that is high on my list of things to do. Then I have a few half-finished bobbins I would like to clean up. I have the beginnings of a hat design on my needles that I would like to published early next year too! But for now, all of this must come after preparing for my current set of classes and finishing up Christmas presents.

I will post again sooner next time - I promise! I think life is going to slow down a bit over the next few weeks, which should give me more time for photography, spinning and working on the computer.

Cheers!
- Grace

Thursday, October 17, 2013

The Spinzilla Spin Ins!

Spinzilla is an event in which spinner's from all over the world join teams and compete against each other, but we on Team SweetGeorgia wanted to do what we could to make the experience as special as possbile for our own members!

Felicia put together some fantastic 'goodie bags' for everyone on our team - wow! Buttons, fibre, chocolate, gift certificates! Oh my!


We also had a few 'spin-ins' at the studio - spinners from all around the Vancouver area came out the studio last Tuesday and Thursday nights to hang out and get some spinning done!

We had a very full house on Tuesday...







Fewer people could make it out on Thursday, but we still had a great, productive time!





I have more photos too - you can check out the entire album here!   (Thanks Ginny for sharing the photos you took too!)

What's next? Another meetup on Monday night! We will be announcing our own Team SweetGeorgia winners! And we'll have a chance to show off some of our plyed yarn too!

Cheers!
- Grace

Monday, October 14, 2013

My Personal Spinzilla Results!

Whew! This has been a lonnnng and exciting week! I have been spinning up a storm and I took that lovely trip back to my mom's house for a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend in Victoria. Yes!

So, I will summarize all the spinning I have accomplished between 9pm (PST) on Sunday October 6th until 9pm Sunday October 13th...

Bobbin #1
Fibre Type: Panda
Colourway: “London Town” (from the SweetGeorgia Fibre Club August 2012). 
Weight: 115 grams 
523 yards




Bobbin #2
Fibre Type: Merino Bamboo Silk
Colourway: “Brushfire and Tumbleweed” (from the SweetGeorgia Fibre Club August 2013). 
Weight: 117 grams 
508 yards





Bobbin #3
Fibre Type: Superwash BFL
Colourway: “Vampire Christmas” (from the SweetGeorgia Fibre Club December 2011). 
Weight: 111 grams 
411 yards





Bobbin #4
Fibre Type: Superwash BFL + Nylon
Colourway: “Indian Summer” (from the SweetGeorgia Fibre Club September 2013). 
Weight: 118 grams 
318 yards
**Final bobbin is photographed with bobbin #5 below**




Bobbin #5
Fibre Type: Polworth +Silk
Colourway: “What Lurks Beneath...” ( the SweetGeorgia Spinzilla limited edition colour). 
Weight: 116 grams 
549 yards





Bobbin #6
Fibre Type: Panda
Colourway: “Waterfall” (from the SweetGeorgia Fibre Club July 2013). 
Weight: 122 grams 
451 yards





Bobbin #7
Fibre Type: Unknown, but does contain mohair
Colourway: “Unknown” (from the SweetGeorgia yarns studio). 
Weight: 112 grams 
560 yards





Bobbin #8
Fibre Type: Superwash Merino and Nylon
Colourway: “Autumn Wind” (from the SweetGeorgia Fibre Club October 2013). 
Weight: 118 grams 
274 yards
**I have greyed out this images so as not to spoil the colour for club members! I will update these photos once I think most people have had a chance to get thier club packages!**





Spindle #1
Fibre Type: Panda
Colourway: “November Rain” (from the SweetGeorgia Fibre Club November 2012). 
Weight: 22 grams 
137 yards





Soooo... my grand total for the week is 3,731 yards!

My husband has kindly pointed out that is 3.41163 kilometres. Wow.

Now, I better get plying...



Cheers!
And happy Thanksgiving everyone!
- Grace