www.yarncandysweetfiber.com

Hello everyone!

I’m proud to announce the new home of Yarn Candy, Sweet Fiber!

www.yarncandysweetfiber.com

For the past year I’ve been blogging here about all sorts of things; knitting, vacations, school, the process of dyeing yarn.. And I plan to continue, right here! So update your bookmarks, bloglines and links if you haven’t already and check out the new site, there’s lots of exciting announcements ahead.

Silk Cashmere Fingering - part of The Grey Collection

A Colourful Day in May

Thought you might enjoy a peak at what I’ve been up to these past few weeks!

The New Super Sweet Sock

The new Super Sweet Sock now contains 80% Superwash Merino & 20% Nylon for extra strength and toughness when it comes to your super sweet socks!

Super Sweet Sock - 80% SW Merino 20% Nylon

Merino Lace

A new lovely Merino Lace weight..

Merino Lace – 100% Superwash Merino @ 960 yards per skein!

Merino Lace

And some new colours in the much loved Merino Twist!

Merino Twist - 100% SW Merino

If you’d like to see some more of my hand dyed yarns check out my 2010 set on Flickr.

South to Seattle

A couple weeks ago I spent 5 days in Seattle, Washington with Jason. We were lucky enough to book a ridiculously cheap hotel for our stay.  Apart of me was slightly apprehensive about this too-good-to-be-true situation, having stayed in and experienced the “quirks” of several cheap hotels during my life so far.

Luckily, the hotel was lovely. Complimentary breakfasts, cookies in the afternoon, a long balcony where you could see the space needle from and a shower head placed several comfortable feet above my head (I’m honestly only 6 feet tall, but there was this one time when the place I was staying at had the shower head at shoulder height, definitely makes washing long hair difficult!)

We of course visited Pike Place. Before going there I had been told it was Seattle’s version of Granville Island. There were many more merchants selling souvenirs and hand made items at Pike Place than I had expected. I bought a beautiful ceramic dish and met a few fellow artists.

Sadly I was without a pen, the entire sitting area is marked with names and dates and little notes from the past.

We also lost ourselves in this lovely antique shop that appeared tiny from the outside but stretched on for rooms and rooms and rooms. It was full of some of my favourite things, sparkly jewels and old trinkets.

Though I must admit visiting the very first Starbucks was the highlight of my day..

It’s tucked so neatly in between the other shops that we nearly walked right by it. For those of you who have never seen the original Starbucks logo, check it out..

On our way back to Canada we stoped in Everett to visit the Future of Flight Aviation Center where we went on the Boeing tour. We got to see various Boeing planes in different points of assembly. The building was absolutely huge. We had to take a shuttle between doors and travel by foot though underground tunnels to various viewing stations. Sadly I wasn’t allowed to take my camera with me, or any personal belongings or electronic devices for that matter (they’ve got a few pictures on their website). But I did get to capture a few shots in the museum!

Yarn Candy, Sweet Fiber Giveaway

I’m excited to announce that I am holding a giveaway for all those participating in the Calais KAL held by the Beginning Lace Knitters group on Ravelry. There are a couple guidelines for the giveaway but anyone on Ravelry can join! For more information check out this thread here.

Here are the prizes up for grabs..

A skein of the beautiful merino silk blend that was used to design the Calais shawl.
Yarn Candy, Sweet Fiber Silk Merino Fingering

A skein of my super soft & squishy merino, cashmere, nylon blend in a gorgeous green.
Yarn Candy, Sweet Fiber Cashmerino Sock

And two separate sets of my super cute mini enamel stitch markers!

I look forward to seeing everyone’s beautiful Calais Shawls!

Calais Shawl

Calais Shawl by Judy Marples

A great friend and co worker of mine has recently designed a gorgeous spring shawl using Yarn Candy, Sweet Fiber’s Silk Merino Fingering. It’s so exciting to watch the number of projects increase daily on Ravelry and to see that the Beginning Lace Knitters Group has picked it for their April 2010 knit a long.

If you’d like to check out the Calais Shawl for yourself you can find the blog post & download link on Judy’s blog, Purl Bumps.

I may be a tad bias, but I’m addicted. Maybe it’s the new bamboo needles. Maybe it’s my silky yarn. Maybe it’s the rhythm of 3’s repeated in the pattern. Or maybe it’s the fact that my school and it’s studios are closed the Monday before all my final projects are due and I’m trying to keep it together.

I cannot stop knitting this.

A sneak peak at Fibres West 2010..

I’ve been busy. Reeeeeally busy. Our formal dining room has officially become my fibre studio for the month. The table is under there somewhere, and if you look really close you can still see a couple of chairs. I’m proud to say I’ve managed to dye, twist and label over 250 skeins of yarn this past month for this year’s much anticipated Fibres West.

I’m also very excited to be introducing several new yarns..

Cashmerino Sock

80% Merino
10% Cashmere
10% Nylon

115g – 372y/340m

28sts/4″ – 3-3.5mm

Unbelievably soft. You’ll have to come feel this one for yourself.

Merino Twist

100% Superwash Merino

115g – 400y/366m

26-28sts/4″ – 2.5-3mm

Soft Sea Merino

70% Superwash Merino
30% SeaCell

115g – 372y/340m

26-28sts/4″ – 2.5-3mm

Like the Merino Twist, but with an added bonus of lovely SeaCell.

Sea Silk

60% SeaCell
40% Silk

115g – 700y/640m

Lace / 2ply

Simply stunning.

Fibres West 2010

I’m excited to announce that Yarn Candy, Sweet Fiber will be having a booth at this year’s Fibres West. It will be held March 26th & 27th at the AgRec Building on the Abbotsford Exhibition Park Grounds. More details can be found here.

Between now and then I will be updating the blog with pictures and details of new base yarns I will be introducing at the show. Here’s a sneak peak at the newest one..

Silk Merino Fingering

50% Silk 50% Merino

350m/100g

24-32sts/4″

3-3.5mm

This yarn is an absolutely gorgeous knit. Great for socks and light summer shawls.

I’ve just started a Multnomah by Kate Flagg in it, check it out below.

Awhile it’s been..

I’ve always found it ridiculous when bloggers apologize and make up justifications for not having posted in a long, long time. Instead I’ll show you some of what I’ve been up to, with some commentary of course. Picture heavy post, enjoy!

Living in the country comes with all sorts of perks and surprises.. Such as super large toads, and a brother willing to hold them so I can take a picture.

Eating raspberries still warm from the sun = pure heaven. I miss that, summer please come back.

Meet Serikos. A new 100% silk yarn I began dyeing towards the end of summer and forgot to officially introduce.

I got to meet Leanne Praine & Mandy Moore who were promoting their new book, Yarn Bombing at the Pic-Knit in August.

And they signed mine

Went on a house boat on the Shuswap lake for the Labour Day weekend.

Took some nice pictures there.

I spend a lot of my time on Granville Island. Being a student at Emily Carr University of Art & Design will do that to you.

This is one of my favourite views. Taken while sitting on the benches waiting for Jason to come meet me. I remember the sweetest old lady coming up to stand beside me with her camera. I offered to take a picture of her infront of the bridge. She then went on to tell me she was a tourist. I asked from where, she said Langley, BC. I laughed and told her I live there.

Little friends, can’t eat lunch without them.

My itty bitty studio space at ECUAD.

A painting we had to continuously paint new paintings on top of for a project. This was the third one.

Something about this place fascinates me.

The view from Canada Place, looking back on the city. Epic.

Meet Jason. The now not so new boyfriend. I made his hat!

And his socks for Christmas.

And some cashmere mitts just because.

Made myself a thicker version of the Citron.

And a very pretty, very soft High Line Shawl.

And some mitts for myself as well. Too bad it isn’t cold enough to wear any of this..

Okay, enough pictures for now.

-M

P.S

Some exciting Yarn Candy, Sweet Fiber news coming soon!

Garter Island

I like to think I have been a rather disciplined knitter this summer. I’ve kept my stash growth to a minimum. (I think buying 50 pounds of yarn to dye has suppressed my stashing needs.) I’ve stayed relatively focused on projects. (Until recently.) And I’ve even managed to finish a couple too.

Recently I’ve noticed some serious similarities amongst my projects. Generally I consider myself to be a diverse knitter, using a variety of different colours and stitches with the projects I knit on simultaneously. But apparently this isn’t so..

Exhibit A

Silk Cashmere Lavalette

The Lavalette by  Kristen Kapur.

Through the Loops

The first Lavalette I had made was quite a bit heavier and I really wanted to experience knitting loosely with silk cashmere. I love it so much and I can’t wait until it’s cool enough out to wear it. Knitting with my own hand-dyes has given me a lot more confidence in my dyeing. Seeing the colours knit up is so exciting. And seeing that they don’t pool is even better. Lately I have been experimenting with subtle shifts of colours. You might not be able to see it here, but the grey blue gradually shifts back and forth from a light lavender. I’ve found a lot of pleasure in dyeing greys with little hints of colour. It’s rather magical, I think. There isn’t really anything out there like it, at least not that I have seen. Maybe this is where the obsession started.

Exhibit B

Silk Cashmere Aestlight

The Aestlight Shawl

by Gudrun Johnston

The Shetland Trader

I couldn’t resist starting this unusually constructed shawl. Rather than working with a dense material, I decided to loosen it up a bit and work with a fingering weight on larger needles. I’m almost done the straight garter section and think I might have enough to do a full size. Originally I thought I may have to modify the pattern a bit so that I’d be sure to have enough left

Silk Cashmere Aestlight

to finish the border sections. I was planning on doing less garter and more open lace work, but we shall see.

Doesn’t it have a pretty drape? A brown-grey choice is definitely an unusual one for me. I’ve tried to keep the tonal value of the colours more or less the same, that way one doesn’t end up with the jarring contrast that commonly accompanies variegated colours. There’s something soothing about this knit.

Exhibit C

Top Secret

This project is a secret.

I shouldn’t really be sharing it. But it’s necessary I do to further my point. It’s the first project on my list of Christmas knits. It’s also one of the most important. I wish I could tell you why but there runs a risk of the recipient reading this post and so I will have to save that story for another time. I will however give you a hint. (You could of course look on my Ravelry project page. No secrets there.) Using a very special pattern by Ysolda Teague I will be spending many nights knitting row after row of garter stitch. Yes, more garter stitch. Yes, more grey and blue.

Exhibit D

Garter Stitch Scarf

Somewhere along the way of projects I thought it would be a cool idea to start a garter stitch scarf. I long for Fall. I’ve been eyeing the Mericash at the shop for quite sometime now and I finally gave in.

It’s a beautiful blend of merino and cashmere from Uruguay. Alternating colours every two rows I plan to make a simple striped scarf. I started a couple days ago but it was too loose. And rather then begin again on smaller needles, I became distracted by yet another project.

More garter.

More grey.

Exhibit E

New 100% Silk yarn

I’m excited to be releasing a new 100% silk yarn in the coming weeks. It’s loosely spun and slides through your hands effortlessly.

I like to knit with my yarns before I begin selling them. And so, this project is strictly business, or at least that is what I tell myself..

Look at how it shines in the sun.

I plan to have some ready for sale in time for the Pic-Knit at the Surrey Museum on August 8th. As a result I was in need of a rather quick and simple knit that would show the yarn off beautifully.

The Milkweed Shawl by Laura Chau

Silky Milkweed

The Milkweed Shawl

by Laura Chau

Cosmic Pluto Knits

I absolutely love this. And Laura has done a wonderful job writing out a pattern that everyone can read – giving you the option to read a chart or line by line. It takes a bit of concentration but it’s worth it. The thickness of this yarn helps define the simple garter and makes the streams in between the yarn overs stand out quite beautifully.

It’s official, I’m on Garter Island. And if it had a colour, there’s no doubt in my mind that it would probably be blue and grey. Maybe this sudden obsession for garter and grey and blue has been sparked by my recent infatuation with the projects of some of my favorite knitting guys. I even found a group on Ravelry dedicated to the garter stitch called FLOGS (For the Love of Garter Stitch), I thought it was fitting that I join. I think it’s strange how all of my current projects match in one way or another. But maybe it’s more common than I think.

*waves to mom over on purple island*

-Melissa

The Joy of Cashmere

There’s nothing better than being amongst 80 skeins of silk cashmere.

It’s pure heaven.

I spent all day Thursday experimenting with my new dyes and the lovely yarn you see above. I  was able to recreate the soft blue-grey violet colour that I am currently knitting my second Lavalette with, along with many new colours. Knitting is truly effortless with this stuff. Check it out below!

Specs:

Name: Silk Cashmere Fingering

Weight: 3ply Light Fingering

Yardage: 366 meters (400 yards)

Texture: Incredibly soft

I plan to dye the remaining 40 skeins on Monday, and then have them listed on etsy and available in store at 88 Stitches by Friday (July 17th).

Enjoy!

-Melissa

PS

Look what arrived at the shop today!

Zauberball!!!

I can’t wait to start a new project with mine.