Holli Yeoh Knits

I made a quick trip down to Dressew today. Anyone in the Vancouver area probably knows about this amazing store. It’s like the liquidation centre of all things sewing. They also have buttons, ribbons, trims, zippers, supplies, equipment, some craft items, and in recent years with the boom in the knitting industry some novelty yarn and knitting needles.

The main purpose of my trip this time was for buttons. They have the best selection I’ve ever seen by far. This photo just shows a snippet of what they have. Too fun, isn’t it? I need buttons for my secret One Planet Yarn project which should get in the mail asap.

I have been invited to be a guest speaker at the  Fun Knits Spring Knitting Retreat in April. How exciting is that?! I’ll be talking about how I became a knitwear designer, designing children’s clothes and what inspires me. The whole weekend is going to be fantastic starting with lots of time to knit and workshops all day Saturday and delicious meals at the resort. I’m the Saturday evening entertainment and I’ll bring a trunk show of all my designs plus kits and patterns to sell.

We’ll be staying at the Tsa-Kwa-Luten Lodge at Cape Mudge on Quadra Island. The setting is beautiful and I’ve never been to Quadra Island before, so I’m quite excited about going. Why don’t you join us? Can you just picture yourself knitting in one of those comfortable chairs in the main lodge?

Look at those beautiful spirals of curling knitted fabric soaking in the sink - they look like a bouquet of posies. My secret One Planet Yarns project is drawing to a close. I’m soaking it before blocking because my post-washing gauge is different than my prewashing gauge. I have some finishing to do after this wet blocking although I have already picked up and knit some of the edging. Designing with yarn that changes gauge after it’s washed is always tricky. 

Here’s a photo of a finished project that I can show you. I completed these socks last week. I call them computer socks because I keep them beside my computer so I can knit a round or two while reading emails and blogs. They are knit top down with a garter stitch short-row heel from Lucy Neatby’s Cool Socks Warm Feet book. I’ve used this heel before and find it’s nice and cushie. The toe is a made up one similar to Cat Bordhi’s whirlpool toe (which is toe up though). I divided the toe decreases into sixths every other round right down to 6 sts then threaded those last stitches onto the tail and cinched it up.

My husband just caught me lying on the bed with my feet up in the air while photographing them. He gave me a very strange look and walked out of the room shaking his head. Our ceiling is the only area in our apartment that isn’t cluttered with kid and knitting paraphernalia. I thought it would make a nice clear background.

Project Stats
Pattern: A cross between a basic 64 st sock pattern, with Lucy Neatby’s heel and an experimental toe.
Yarn: Opal Rainforest II Collection Caterpillar

I’ve been working away on my secret project for One Planet. There has been a lot of knitting and reknitting going on around here. The yarn is very different from what I’ve been designing with lately so there’s a learning curve attached. It has spurred on some other design ideas which is always exciting. The yarn, which is called  Clarissa is a 50% cotton/50% merino blend with thick and thin sections. It’s a two ply with one of the plies being a very fine strand of cotton and the other ply is a bulkier mix of the wool and cotton. The tension is a little bit  uneven as it knits up, but once washed and blocked it looks great.

 This pattern has minimal shaping and will be a great beginner project. I’m working on the finishing details this week.

My baby lost his first baby tooth! He had it for just over 5 1/2 yrs. Boy that time sure does go fast!

I’ve been working away on the Peacock shop sample using hand-painted yarns and I’m really happy with the results. Look at all those lovely colours swooping through the scallops of the stitch pattern. Peacock is now finished and on display at my LYS, Three Bags Full.

Project Stats
Pattern: Peacock by me and available for purchase here or here.
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Yarns Supersock colourway “Old Rose” (variegated) with Dream in Color Smooshy “Spring Tickle” (semi-solid)
Surprises/Problems: I was a little cocky and didn’t read my own pattern and knit the wrong size!! This project took a little longer to finish than expected as a result.

Last weekend I traveled to Victoria and spent the whole time attending five Sally Melville workshops. It was such a great birthday present from my husband. I’m so pumped up with all the new information we covered. We had homework to do which I just managed to block in time before we hopped in the car to go to the ferry.

The homework swatches turned into lessons in tightening a loose BO edge, the perfect button hole, how to pick up sts beautifully along a curved edge, replacing colour using duplicate stitch among other things. The most exciting workshops for me were pattern shaping. I always find it fascinating how many ways there are to do things and yet how simple it really can be. I now know how to draft the perfect set-in sleeve without any heartache!

Sally is wonderful to listen to and very giving with her information. She brought tons of samples including many from her Color book. She talked about how mistakes and problems can become new design innovations. I would definitely recommend taking a class with Sally or attending a lecture.