Holli Yeoh Knits

I was so busy assembling kits, dealing with last minute details (like buying a second-hand tent) and knitting furiously before the Victoria Knit-Out that I didn’t have a chance to share with you the final specs on some of the samples I finished (and didn’t finish ;-)) for the weekend. As they appear from top to bottom of the pile …

I started this Avery pullover ages ago and managed to finish up the corrugated ribbing for the neckline and shoulder placket. The blues in this colourway will look wonderful with a pair of jeans.

Project Stats
Pattern: Avery by me - pattern available from Holli Yeoh or ask at your LYS.
Yarn: Opal Petticoat (1293) and Opal Uni Dark Blue (1269)

I showed this sweater to you earlier. Chloë is a sweet little cardigan with interesting visual texture in the reverse stocking stitch ridges. In this design, I let the yarn dictate what stitch pattern to use next. It’s fun to swatch with a new self-patterning yarn and see what you come up with.

Kieran is one of my favourite sweaters I designed for my son. I loved seeing him wear this design when he was younger. I just might have to upsize it for this coming winter. Maybe I’ll even make it in this colourway - I love the golden highlights and the hint of mauve in some of the striping.

Project Stats
Pattern: Kieran by me and available for purchase at Holli Yeoh or ask for it at your LYS.
Yarn: Opal Elements 1073 and Opal Uni Mocha (1416)

I cheated a bit with this Lucy cardigan. My Mum knit it for me. (Thanks Mum!) It looks just great in these bright orange colours and received a lot of attention at the Knit-Out. I first chose this colourway to knit a pair of the Guess Who? gloves for Devan. Once I saw it knit up, I knew it would look great as a sweater too.

Project Stats
Pattern: Lucy by me and available for purchase at Holli Yeoh or ask for it at your LYS.
Yarn: Opal Hundertwasser (1430) with Opal Uni Orange (6) and Red (10).

Even though I didn’t get a chance to finish this JoJo cardigan, the colourway is so wonderful that it helped me sell it anyways. I had my work in progress sitting out on the table and it received more attention than many of the finished samples. I just love the strong jewel tones paired with black. Someone said it was like a stained glass window.

All of these are available as kits. Email or leave a comment if you’re interested. They will make their way to the website sooner or later if I don’t sell them first.

Last weekend I attended the Victoria Fibre Festival and Knit-Out. Nigel and I took the ferry to Victoria and had a lovely weekend of knitting and fibre-related events. I arrived in time to drop off a couple of samples for the fashion show on Friday evening. The mocha one is Kieran which I managed to finish by sewing on the buttons at the last minute. The orange one is a recently completed Lucy, knit by my Mum.

Saturday I taught an eager group of knitters out at Boutique to Laine in Oak Bay. I had never been out there before. They have an intimate little shop and then a great big classroom around the back with shelves of sale items. It was very distracting (in a good kind of way) seeing all the yarn on the shelves looking for a good home!

Saturday evening we attended a talk given by Sivia Harding. I first met Sivia about four or five years ago at a Guild meeting. We’re lucky to live in the same neighbourhood in Vancouver and sometimes when our schedules permit, we get a chance to catch up over a coffee. Sivia showed us many of her lovely lace and beaded shawls. I had the honour of modeling her Phoenix Rising Shawl designed for Make One Yarn Studio ’s Year of Lace 2008. 

Sunday dawned nice and sunny. We made our way out to Saxe Point Park in Esquimalt to discover that it was going to be a windy day. After a mad scramble the day before we left for Victoria and much thanks to Nigel, I was able to lay my hands on a second-hand tent for the event. Here’s a very windswept shot of my little tent. Just look at the rakish angle of those little sweaters on display.

Met lots of friendly knitters and had a great day enjoying the sunshine and talking knitting. Many people entered my draw for a free kit and once I process all those little slips of paper and try to read all that handwriting, I’ll get Devan to close his eyes and select a winner.

I hadn’t really realised it, but I’ve been knitting with circular needles almost exclusively for a few years now. I love my Addi Turbos. That’s all fine and dandy until I can’t find the right sized circular needle in my stash. I swear I have a 2 ¾ mm circular needle - or do I? At any rate, I pulled out a pair of straights and boy, do I find them cumbersome. I can’t throw the project easily into my bag when I’m on the go. The needles keep hitting the arms of the plastic chairs at the swimming pool when Devan has his lessons. I just don’t like them. I realised that while I was knitting in public, I actually felt somewhat embarrassed for using the straight needles! When did that happen? I guess the circs just seem so much more streamlined and refined now.

Finally last night I finished the last piece of the sweater that needs a 2 ¾ mm size. Now it’s just the blocking and finishing left to do.

I’m working feverishly on completing as many samples in the yarn that I carry as possible for the upcoming Victoria Fibre Festival and Knit-Out. Yes, it’s confirmed. I’m attending again this year and the dates are June 20 to 22nd. I’ll be teaching two workshops (scroll down to find them) on the Saturday at Boutique de Laine in Oak Bay. On the Sunday, I’ll be selling kits and patterns at the Knit-Out in Saxe Point Park in Esquimalt. I hope to see you there!

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.

Sunday at the Victoria Knit-Out prooved to be a challenging day weatherwise.  When we arrived to set up the tent there were grey skies and the rain was holding. Devan helped unpack his bear modeling the Bobo sweater design.

After the tent was up and about the time people started arriving for the Knit-Out it tried raining a few times.  The skies were toying with us.  It would rain for a while and then it would stop.  Then the rain water would blow off the top of the tent in a big splat over the side.  Then it would rain again and I would pull everything in from the sides to keep the yarn dry. 

Throughout the afternoon we had cloud and patches of blue skies.  The whole time it was windy. By mid-afternoon there were sunny breaks and the wind was buffeting the tent around (look at the angle of the tent legs, the billowing walls and the angles of the hanging sweaters and things on the wall).  By 3:30 it was apparant that I had to take the tent down or risk having it fly up, up and away and then land in the ocean.  Thankfully some very helpful and friendly tourists from Denver CO walking by just then grabbed the tent legs to hold it down while I ran around pulling everything down that was hanging on the tent.  Then along with Nigel and myself, all four of us ripped down the walls and collapsed the tent.  

Eventful weather aside, I had a great day meeting new people and talking with knitters.  Some of my customers like Diana and Carole who I’ve chatted with by email introduced themselves and it was so great to meet them in person.  I also saw friends and bloggers Uli, Shelley from Fun Knits store, Megan and Leanne. Thanks to Marilyn for organizing a great event.

It was fun to see knitters’ reactions to my designs. They are so familiar to me and it seems so obvious to me that they use self-patterning sock yarn that it was always a surprise to me that many knitters did not realise that. Some were even unfamiliar with self-patterning yarn. Are they in for a fun experience the first time they knit with it! I’m glad I did all that sample knitting - it sure made a difference to show people how the yarn that I have knits up.

Yes, that’s who you think she is! Stephanie Pearl-McPhee a.k.a. the Yarn Harlot was standing directly in front of me while waiting for her introduction at her talk Saturday evening in Victoria.  (Sorry for the grainy cell phone photo - must remember my bloggerly duties and bring my camera to these events.) 

What a pleasant surprise to find out that as a sponsor of the Victoria FibreFest and Knit-Out, Nigel and I were entitled to a front row (literally) seats at the Yarn Harlot talk.  Stephanie was up to her usual standard and by the end of her talk, my face hurt from laughing so hard.

Stephanie also graced the Knit-Out with her presence the next day.  What a thrill it was to have her in my tent and chatting about knitting needles and car seats on airplanes and baby sweaters.  I also got to see her lovely Bohus up close and personal - beautiful.

Other things that made for a memorable weekend included a chance viewing of a bunch of nude cyclists streak past in honour of the World Naked Bike Ride, a visit to the Undersea Gardens with my son and the crazy weather on Sunday from rain to sun to blustery winds that threatened to blow my tent away (more later).

Mechelle Lymburner, a photographer friend and the mother of one of Devan’s classmates offered to photograph some of my sweaters to use in posters for my tent at the Knit-Out. We threw the sweaters on some kids in the playground after school one day last week and had some fun. Mechelle dropped the photos off this afternoon before we left for Victoria. All I have to say is WOW! Mechelle has a great way with design, composition and use of light. She’s amazingly fast at snapping just the right shot of the kids. Check out Mechelle’s site to see more of her work.

I managed to finish three sweaters (running left to right Lucy, Kieran and Aidan) in time for the Knit-Out. Not bad. How long has it been? Four weeks? I was hoping for more but I always over-estimate my time and forget to take into account the other things I have to do. I also have a fourth sweater in the works - Ruby still needs sleeves and a hood.

Patterns and Yarn
Lucy cardigan (my pattern): Opal Rainbow and Opal Uni pink (1413) and purple (18)
Kieran pullover (my pattern): Opal Petticoat (1291) and Opal Uni green (1266)
Aidan vest (my pattern): Opal Elements (1074) and Shelridge Farm Ultra Soft Touch fingering weight in Ice Blue
Ruby hoody (my pattern): Opal Petticoat (1294) and Shelridge Farm Ultra Soft Touch fingering weight in Thistleflower

I spent the day today running around trying to get last minute things done.  In between soccer practice and school, I also managed to get some kit labels printed, picked up the newly formatted patterns for the kits and framed the posters.  And while in the car and on the ferry I also worked on my demonstration sample for the Knit-Out. 

To update you on all the knitting going on around here in anticipation of the Victoria FibreFest and Knit-Out.  Aidan is almost finished, just some buttons, a few ends and a label to go.  Photo to come soon.

Kieran is coming along nicely and is on the blocking board.  Let me tell you a little about how I block.  I like using blocking wires to keep the major sections straight and to reduce the amount of pinning, so first I thread those on between the edge st and the second st from the edge.  I weave the wire back and forth between the rows.  Then I pin the pieces down to my blocking board using stainless steel T-pins at all the major corners of the piece and stainless steel straight pins anywhere else they are needed.  My blocking board is a large piece of blue foam insulation from the hardware store. 

This is the best part - for my standard patterns I’ve drawn up a cheat sheet in all my pattern sizes on a piece of gingham using fabric markers.  All I have to do is place the sweater pieces over their pattern piece on my blocking cloth and pin to fit the measurements.  I love it and it saves me so much time.

Once the pieces are pinned on I give them a very generous spritzing of water with a spray bottle, pat them down a bit with my hands to even things out and make sure the fibre gets good and wet.  Then I leave it overnight to dry.  Once on the board I can even lean the whole thing against a wall to get it out of the way.

My needles have been flying lately and it’s going to be a long haul flight!  I have a merchant table at the upcoming Victoria FibreFest and Knit-Out on June 10 at Saxe Point Park in Esquimalt on Vancouver Island.  I’m taking my patterns, kits and yarn to sell at the Knit-Out.  Many of my samples are in yarns that are now discontinued or that I don’t carry.  It’s time to knit some fresh samples in colourways that I can offer people, so that means lots of knitting between now and then.

The weather in Vancouver is finally allowing me to knit outdoors, so here I am at Devan’s soccer practice last Friday.  By Friday night I had all the parts for the Aidan vest.  Just need to pull out the blocking board before finishing it up.

Saturday night I cast on for a new Kieran in a fresh green with a pretty blue, pink and green self-patterning.  I just now finished the back - 24 hours later.  I had lots of opportunity today to knit while at a Guild executive meeting, then later tonight while visiting after we had my Dad over for his birthday dinner.