photo Jane Richmond_zpsux4wawxl.png

Friday, March 28, 2014

And the winner is...




The winner of one gorgeous skein of Caterpillargreen Yarn is Amanda! She used Plymouth Happy Feet for her mitts!
Congratulations Amanda!!! I can't wait to find out which colourway you choose!

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...and don't forget Shannon and I and our JOURNEY trunk show will be at the Beehive tomorrow from 12-4pm!
Come and say hello, we'd love to see you there! 


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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

LINDEN mittens || KAL Week 2 and We're DONE!


DONE!

This knit along was short and sweet! It was only two weeks long which was the perfect amount of time, most of us finished our mitts and some even went on to make more than one pair! This might be the most fun I've had during a knit along -- everyone was so energetic and enthusiastic and watching the yarns people chose was endless fun! There are so many fantastic self striping options out there! And not only self striping, we saw self patterning, vibrant solids, even colourwork stripes when self striping wasn't available!

I finished my fingering mittens on Day 9 and on Day 10 cast on a second pair in sport weight - this time knitting two-at-a-time (my first time ever!). I've had very little time to knit since then and at 9:30 last night still had the finger tips and thumbs to finish! But I'm happy to say that I finished in time (well... 7 minutes late to be precise... but whose counting right ;)


GIVEAWAY!

And as promised I have a little giveaway in store for you!
Caterpillargreen Yarns has so generously donated a skein of your choosing to one lucky winner.

{ concrete & tulips }


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HOW TO ENTER

Leave a comment telling me what yarn you used for your LINDEN mitts!

...that's it!

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BONUS : Leave a separate comment for EACH pair of mitts you cast on, if you started a second pair you'll have an extra chance to win!

To qualify you need only to have participated in the KAL... if you didn't finish your mitts in time, that's okay, you can still enter to win!

Please get your entries in by Friday, March 28th.

If you don't leave me a way to contact you - your entry won't count!



Monday, March 24, 2014

JOURNEY : Trunk Show & Signing at the Beehive


Shannon and I worked feverishly through the spring, summer, and fall to finish our new book JOURNEY just in time to pre-release at Knit City last October. Now that the dust has settled and the book has made it's way to local yarn stores and onto knitters book shelves, we're having a party to celebrate! Come and join us for our official Canadian book launch at the landmark Beehive Wool Shop this Saturday, March 29th from noon until 4pm. Bring your copy of JOURNEY for us to sign, or pick up a copy in store! And for those who will be buying a copy, the Beehive will give you 15% off the book if you are purchasing yarn for one of the projects! Win win!! Our trunk show will be on display so come and have a look at the book samples up close and in person!

I really do hope you will join us! We'd love to meet you and celebrate the launch of our second book and our first pattern collaboration!  

. . .

...and for those of you participating in the LINDEN knit along, don't forget the KAL ends today, so wrap up your work in progress and join me tomorrow when I'll be opening up the comments for the coveted skein of Caterpillargreen yarn that's up for grabs!!!

...don't forget to tag your projects #lindenkal wherever you post them online!

Monday, March 17, 2014

LINDEN mittens || KAL Week 1 and Almost Done!



Week 1 of the LINDEN knit along is over and we've been having an absolute BLAST knitting along together in the JR group on Ravelry! My favorite part has been admiring everyone's yarn -- there is such a variety and so many gorgeous colourways!

I could barely wait to cast on with my soft and squishy skein of Caterpillargreen Yarn -- once the knit along CO date arrived I went full tilt. I've been flying along on my mittens considering the limited amount of time I've had to devote to them while travelling to Tolt Yarn and Wool and Vogue Knitting Live -- if only it was possible to knit and drive, sigh.

I actually cast on with double pointed needles because I had to go down two sizes to get gauge and only had 2.25mm in dpns. I barely finished the 1/2 inch ribbed cuff before I broke down in search of a 40 inch nickel plated needle to magic loop with! I hadn't realized how fond of magic loop I was until I was forced to work on dpns -- I find it so much faster and conducive to multitasking while knitting!

Also, self striping yarn... highly addictive! For me, working with self striping yarn is like reading a really good book that I can't put down -- I don't want to stop without completing the chapter I'm on. With self striping yarn, I always want to get through the stripe I'm on -- the trouble is, once I do, I get a glimpse of the next colour stripe and can't help but begin it just to see what it looks like. Just one more stripe, just one more stripe... It's a vicious cycle.

Now that I'm home from my travels I cannot wait to check in with our Ravelry group and see everyone's progress! I am so glad so many of you are using our #lindenkal hashtag on Instagram and elsewhere, it's by far the easiest way to get a glimpse of everyone's progress in one snapshot! 

We still have a week to go and it's definitely not too late to cast on and jump in! I have grand plans of casting on a second pair in sport weight if I finish this pair in time! I'd like to attempt two at a time, I've never tried before!

There will be a prize at the end of the KAL and for those who don't yet have the pattern you can purchase it for 25% off during the knit along!!! Just use code LINDENKAL during checkout on Ravelry! 

Happy Monday and Happy Knitting!!!

Monday, March 10, 2014

LINDEN mittens || Cast On and Knit Along!


Ready... Set... CO!!!

Today's the day! I know we've all been anxiously awaiting to cast on our LINDEN mittens and today is the day! I've been especially excited to get going because I have a very special skein of Caterpillargreen Yarn in their new colourway Hillside that I will be knitting with. It's my very first time working with this yarn -- it's been making the rounds in our knitting group and I've been very envious, I couldn't wait to work with it myself. 


I've always been in love with the colourways but now that I've worked with the yarn first hand, I can honestly say it's heaven! I enjoyed knitting with it so much I didn't want to stop swatching -- even after I found the right needle size to get gauge!


I swatched in the round because I know my knit stitch is tighter than my purl. 
I'm glad I did because it turns out I needed to go down two needle sizes!



And now I'm ready to cast on my mittens!!! What about you? Will you be knitting along with us? What yarn are you using? Come join the conversation!

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Tolt Yarn and Wool + Vogue Knitting Live


Shannon and I are so excited to be visiting the fantastic new yarn shop Tolt Yarn and Wool during our trip to Seattle! We will be crashing their weekly Stitch Circle with our trunk show and a book signing! If you're in the area, bring your knitting and come chat with us!

Book Signing & Trunk Show
Thursday March 13th from 6-8pm
Tolt Yarn and Wool
4509 Tolt Ave
Carnation, WA 

. . . 


And then there is Vogue Knitting Live!!! Will you be there this upcoming weekend?! Our trunk show and books will be on display at the Stash Local booth Friday and Saturday. Come see us for a book signing Saturday between 12-2pm!

Trunk Show - March 14-15th
Book Signing - March 15th 12 - 2pm
Stash Local booth #310
Vogue Knitting Live

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I hope to see you at one of these awesome events!!!

Monday, March 3, 2014

LINDEN mittens || knit along!


I recently released a new mitten pattern -- the LINDEN mittens. Although the pattern is newly published I actually finished the mitts back in March of last year and they've been my all-time favorite mittens ever since. They are the perfect weight and the colour changing keeps the knitting interesting. Now every time I come across a fun self striping yarn I want to make mitts!

It all started when my friend Grace begged me to give her the pattern, unedited, last spring. She promptly knit herself a pair in the Boutique colourway of Felici and made every one of us completely jealous! On top of that, her mittens started photo bombing her Instagram feed! Every time they popped up, the urge to have my own grew stronger... are they not adorable!?

{ all photos high jacked from junipergrace's instagram feed } 


The sad news -- the Boutique colourway had been discontinued :(
Luckily Grace had a stock pile of it that she was willing to barter and trade :)
Victory!!



I was going to cast on my mittens but...

A bunch of my girlfriends are knitting with Caterpillargreen Yarns right now and if you are familiar with this yarn you'll know exactly why we've all been obsessing over it! First of all, the colourways are really special -- it's not even something I can describe, you really just need to take a look for yourself. Secondly, it's 20% cashmere, enough said right? The knitted fabric is like butter.



So you can imagine my excitement when Caterpillargreen Yarns contacted me about pairing their yarns with my mitten pattern -- I jumped at the chance to put the two together and suggested we have a knit along!

Now that our JOURNEY kal has wrapped up I'm ready to cast on my mittens! Do you have a skein of self striping yarn in your stash that is begging to become more than just socks? Or maybe you don't have any self striping yarn but you have plenty of gorgeous fingering or sport weight yarn in your stash -- these mitts would be just as lovely in a solid! Join in with me, it's going to be lots of fun!

And because I don't want you to have any excuse not to join in I will be offering the LINDEN mitten pattern at 25% OFF!
Use coupon code LINDENKAL at check out on Ravelry!

Still on the fence? What if I told you that I will be giving away a gorgeous skein of Caterpillargreen Yarns!

Here are the particulars:

READY... SET...
I may have my yarn selection sorted but I know that others may not so let's take the week to make our decisions.

GO!
We will cast on next Monday -- March 10th. 
Our goal is to complete our mitts in two weeks time -- and bind-off by Monday, March 24th!

Join the Ravelry group and follow along in the KAL discussion