Holli Yeoh Knits

We are particularly blessed with talented fibre people in Vancouver.  We have great knitwear designers like Sivia Harding, Astor  and Carmen Craig-Martin.  Amazing technical editors like Knitty.com’s Mandy Moore.  Technically brilliant knitting teachers like Jean Wong.  Gifted hand-painted yarn dyers like Felicia, who is sadly on hiatus.  Respected tapestry artists like Kaija Rautiainen.

And among many more Interweave Crochet’s new Editor-in-Chief, Kim Werker also lives in Vancouver.  Kim is coming to our Guild as a guest presenter tomorrow evening.  Are we lucky, or what!?  Kim is going to talk about her new job at the magazine and show us some crocheted goodies.  If you’re in the area, guests are always welcome at our events.  Our meetings are held in Oakridge Mall at the Oakridge Seniors’ Centre with the entrance outside on the east side of the mall.  Doors open at 7:00 and the meeting starts at 7:30.

Just received a package in the mail containing yarn - yipee!  It’s called tvyarn and is handpainted by Jana of White Oak Studio.

The colourways for her hand painted yarn are inspired by the shows she watches on television while she knits.  What a great idea.  I mean, don’t we all love to knit and watch tv at the same time!  That’s certainly where I get the bulk of my knitting done.  Jana very generously offered to send me two complimentary skeins of a colourway of my choice.  It was a hard decision!  Finally I decided upon X-Files.  One of my favourite shows in its hey day - and it was filmed right here in Vancouver for most of the series. 

Jana placed an order for my patterns which will look great knit up with her hand-painted yarns.  She plans to have promotions occasionally at her shop offering little gifts (including Bee’s Knees Knits patterns) with a minimum purchase.  Keep checking back at White Oak Studio for new colourways and offers.

Finished and successful - even the felting part didn’t cause me any problems.  They’re cute as a trio - it’s such a shame to split them up. Our Easter guests had fun with their little Easter egg hunt and the Schmeebot bunnies helped out by hanging onto their baskets and overseeing the hunters.

Pattern: Schmeebot rabbit
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool
Needles: 5 mm dpn (green and orange rabbits), 6 mm dpn (grey rabbit)
Modifications: Played with length of arms and legs. Tried garter st ears on one of the bunnies instead of moss st. Added garter st bobble tails. Worked the orange rabbit in an i-cord technique on two dpns.

Easter is coming and I had this last minute idea to knit some bunnies for my little bunny and his cousins’ Easter baskets.  The Schmeebot bunny piqued my interest quite a while back and now I have a reason to knit it!  Or should I say three of them.

Here are the gangly legged bunnies before they’re felted and finished off.  The grey one is  knit on larger (too large) needles.  The orange one is knit completely on two dpns like i-cord.  For the larger sections I used a crochet hook to ladder up the loose st pulled across the back.  With a little practice, this technique could work quite well.  The green one is “just right.”  Hmm, did I knit three bunnies or three bears?

In preparation for a little presentation to my Guild tomorrow night, I’m going through my swatches and notes for a workshop I teach, Strategies for Knitting with Self-Patterning Sock Yarns.  Some of my favourite stitch patterns to use with self-patterning sock yarns are what I call movement stitches.  I like to see the linear stripes created with these yarns changed around so they turn into zigzags or scallops.

Grumperina published a popular sock pattern called Jaywalker on MagKnits about one and a half years ago.  It uses a simple chevron stitch pattern which causes any striping in the yarn to zigzag its way along each row.  This stitch pattern could be quite effective in something other than a sock too.  Think blanket, summery top, cardigan, … the list goes on.

One day while flipping through Nancy Bush’s Folk Knitting in Estonia I was attracted to a lovely little lace pattern.  The Vausaba or peacock’s tail pattern as Nancy calls it creates a delicate scalloped edge and when a new colour is joined, snazzy scalloped stripes are created.  I then wondered what it would look like in a self-patterning yarn.  Low and behold it looks great. 

So great that I was inspired to design a lacy cardigan pattern called Peacock both named for and incorporating the Estonian lace pattern.