Holli Yeoh Knits

It’s snowing this morning in Vancouver. I’m just going to hunker down in front of the fire with a good cup of coffee and work on some samples for my upcoming trip to Quadra Island. Since we’ve been home I’ve finished a pair of mittens (on the right) and I’m working on gloves. These are samples for the kits I’m taking to the Spring Knitting Retreat. Come join us, it’s not too late to register!

The snow today reminds me of the variable weather we experienced at the beginning of our trip to Edmonton. From a snow storm as our plane landed and frozen temperatures down to -17 degrees Celsius on the first weekend … to sunny blue Alberta skies throughout most of the rest of the trip.

We went sledding on the closed toboggan hill of my youth - I know, we’re renegades! We used cardboard and a frisby for sliding. We have my nieces to thank for the idea of using a frisby - believe it or not it works wonderfully in a pinch!

We had an Easter egg hunt in what was left of the melting snow banks.

And on our last day, we went for a weiner roast at the park. It was a true Alberta spring. Now it’s time to do something about this Vancouver weather!

The workshops at River City Yarns in Edmonton were wonderful. I had great fun teaching them - I really enjoy sharing with other knitters.

I think my new favourite workshop is Making Marvelous Mittens. Cynthia at River City Yarns gave it that name and I think I’ll continue to use it. We experiment with the various effects possible with knitting with a double strand of self-patterning yarn.

I had a great group of ladies, most of whom attended more than one workshop and one who attended all three workshops (Hi Jan!). Sunday was a bit exciting as there were police cruisers parked outside when we arrived and we witnessed an arrest in the building! Not to worry, the knitters were all safe.

I love the shop. They carry a wide range of interesting yarns and fibres. They are continually changing things around so every time I visit I discover new things. In the time since they’ve opened they’ve expanded and now have a couple of good teaching spaces so that more than one class can be held at the same time.

Devan and I traveled to Edmonton for spring break. We left the blooming magnolia trees and daffodils behind in Vancouver and arrived to a snow fall. I must confess that I was hoping for snow so that Devan would get a chance to play in it. He was out first thing this morning making snow angels …

and shoveling the driveway.

I took pictures of my favourite areas of my mum’s garden where I like to spend time when we’re here in the summer - like the goldfish pond with the waterfall …

and this is where I photographed some yarn last summer.

I was also inspired by the markings in the snow. This is a great texture and would look great on a sweater.

I can’t believe the time is going so quickly. A week ago I went to the Fibrefest International with Carmen and Nigel. Nigel made the arrangements with me while he was in his last weeks of a 4-month-long trip to India with my Dad. He had his priorities in the place! Check out their travel blog for some great reading. We made the trek out to Abbotsford in search of yarn. I also wanted to see if it would be a good venue for me to sell Bee’s Knees Knits kits in the future - the jury is still out on that.

Fibrefest is a spinner’s mecca. We met an alpaca named Viscount and saw Suri alpaca pindrafted roving. Love the circular design. I’m not a spinner (not out of a lack of interest, rather a lack of time) but I loved touching all the roving and in some cases, admiring the beautiful hand-dyed colours.

I stopped and talked to Shelley at Fun Knits (she was busy with a customer while I was taking the photo). We discussed having a fashion show of my designs while I’m at her Spring Knitting Retreat on Quadra Island. How fun will that be? Shelley will muster up a collection of toddlers and babies to model my sweaters. I’ll try to get a lot of photos.

I spent a bit of time at Birkeland Bros’ booth riffling through their underweights from Fleece Artist. No labels identifying fibre content or gauge, but great prices. I’m pretty sure I found a skein of Sea Wool and a skein of Nova Sock. The third skein is from SR Kertzer and I bought it from Knitopia. I fell in love with the kneehigh socks made with this yarn in the ads I’ve seen in magazines - can’t find a picture online though.

I also visited with Rabbitch who had kitted up my mittens and gloves patterns with her beautiful hand-dyed. I think she’ll have some of these kits available in her online shop.

If you’re in the Edmonton area next week, come join me for a few workshops at lys, River City Yarns. Their schedule and registration information is here.

I’m teaching Strategies for Working with Self-Patterning Sock Yarns - one of my favourite workshops. We explore a selection of stitches that look good in self-patterning yarn. We discuss the benefits and limitations of this unique yarn. Many of the ideas discussed also translate to hand-painted yarns.

I’m also teaching two other workshops based on my new gloves and mittens patterns. In the Guess Who? Gloves Workshop we work through the unique thumb gusset shaping and talk about getting the right fit for your glove.

In the Making Marvelous Mittens workshop I walk you through a peasant thumb worked with waste yarn, including picking up those sts afterwards and working the thumb. We also experiment with holding two strands of self-patterning yarn together as you knit and the effects you can achieve.

With all the wonderful hand-painted yarns out there these days, I wanted to show you that Bee’s Knees Knits patterns look equally wonderful knit up in them as opposed to self-patterning yarns. Painted yarns that stripe a bit are the most effective, but you could also use a truely variegated yarn if you like that effect. Just use a yarn that will give you the right gauge and pretty much anything works - even solids.

This is Lorna’s Laces Seaside paired with Louet Gems 54 Teal and the design is Devan. My Mum knit the sweater and I assembled it and worked the front band - great teamwork! This sample is now at Three Bags Full in Vancouver.

The secret project for One Planet Yarn and Fiber is out the door and has been received by the One Planet people. This is an excerpt from the email I received earlier this week:

Just wanted to let you know I received the sample [garment] yesterday. It is absoluteley ADORABLE!!!!

Now it’s just a matter of it being photographed on their end - I’ll share those just as soon as I’m able - and their tech editor needs to take a look at the pattern. Soon the pattern will be available for you as a pdf download here or on their site. In the meantime, take a look at the yarn that’s specified. Clarissa is a 50/50 cotton/merino wool blend with thick and thin bits. The colours are really interesting as the cotton and wool both take the dye very differently giving it a bit of a tweedy, rag effect when knitted up.

I’m teaching a gloves workshop at an upcoming Guild event on April 12th. If you’re in the Vancouver area and want a personal lesson on knitting the Guess Who? gloves why don’t you join us? I’ll walk you through the unique thumb gusset construction and we’ll talk about knitting a glove that fits.

We have other instructors teaching various things that day including Carmen who will be teaching surface embellishment. She’s show a combination of knitting and crochet tricks you can use to spice up a plain or otherwise uninspired garment. You can even change the fit of the garment with strategically placed adornments.

Michelle’s class is a project-based technique workshop called techtouq. She’ll be teaching wonderful techniques such as tubular cast on, short rows, jogless circular stripes among other things while you knit a head-hugging hat with earflaps.

Our resident prolific knitter and crocheter, Janis will be teaching a beginner class on crochet. I don’t have details yet, but watch the Guild’s website for more information.