Acadia & Terra

June 29, 2015 Fiona Alice

You may have seen the recent photos I've been posting on Facebook and Instagram. If you haven't seen them, then here they are. If you have seen them, then here are some more! This mini collection started four months ago when I spent the weekend at Unravel in Farnham, my first yarn/knitting festival in the UK. I happened to have a table next to The Fibre Company and spent the weekend drooling over their yarn and chatting with founder, Daphne Marinopoulos. By the end of the weekend I was delighted to bring home some of their blends, such as Terra and Acadia, to inspire new knitted accessories. So here they are - my finished pieces, conveniently out in time for Wool Fest this weekend in Cumbria. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend Wool Fest this weekend but I hope to venture there next year!

The first blend is Terra, a rugged Aran weight blend of baby alpaca, merino wool and silk. My first idea was to reknit my Reversible Cable Headband because one skein of Terra is perfect for this project. I never seem to tire of knitting this headband. It's incredibly quick and easy to do. It was a pleasure to have a change from the neutral colours I usually use for this pattern and knit with the beautiful colour pallet Terra is available in. This sample is knit in their colour, Black Locust Bark. Also, this time last week I was soaking up the sun's rays on Guernsey. See my last post as to how I ended up there. However, Guernsey allowed me to photograph my new pieces against its breathtaking landscape. Plus no wind machine necessary, bonus! The following photos were captured by my housemate, Marcel Le Bachelet, on our hike along Icart Point. He's a talented social media guru and photographer extraordinaire, so check out his site!

Naturally, Terra inspired me to design another headband. This one I've called Rocquaine Bay, after an area of water off the Guernsey coast which is known for it's treacherous rocks and tragic shipwrecks. Again this pattern only uses one skein. The sample is made with their colour Beet.

The second yarn I had the pleasure of working with was their double knit weight, Acadia. Again, it is a blend of baby alpaca, merino wool and silk. I don't have the words to describe how much I love this yarn. It's heavenly and lends itself perfectly to the simple stitches that I like to use in my designs, yet the organic texture of the yarn still sings. These are my Pembroke Bay Mitts, named after Pembroke Beach, where I was able to stick my toes into the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in over a year. Samples are knit in Blue Leaf Birch and Mountain Ash.

This last one is probably my favourite of the three new patterns. Icart Point Hat uses two colours of Acadia. If you choose two subtle colours like Verbena and Pinecone you'll get a lovely gradation of the colours in linen stitch. I can't wait to knit this up again with a higher contrast of colour.

Thanks to The Fibre Company for their yarn support and Marcel Le Bachelet for beautiful shots! All patterns are available on my Ravelry page.

Guernsey

June 28, 2015 Fiona Alice

It dawned on me recently that since settling in London, nearly nine months ago now, I have not left the city for a weekend where I can purely enjoy myself. Of course I've ventured outside to Farnham and Edinburgh, but those were both knitting and work related weekends, fun but still work. So when I received an invite from my housemate to spend the weekend on his home island, Guernsey, I thought "Guernsey can't be that bad right?". Turns out Guernsey is friggin' awesome and it's the kind of place that I absolutely love. If there's rugged landscape meeting the majestic Atlantic Ocean, I'm all over that and Guernsey certainly had lots of it. In a way it reminded me of areas of the Maritimes back home, only with more WWII bunkers and gin & tonics.

A few of us ventured away from Kin 2000, our home in London, to spend the weekend celebrating Marcel Le Bachelet, the First of His Name's birthday, at his family's home. When I wasn't soaking up the sun in his mom's garden surrounded by cats and chickens, we were venturing across the island. We sat with our toes in the fine Guernsey sand, climbed over rocks and enjoyed the award winning dairy that Guernsey has to offer. I had the best scrambled eggs and ice cream (not together) of my life.

I did bring some work with me on this short holiday. I can't help it! However, I was more than happy to wake up early before the boys to knit and enjoy the calm surroundings. In my next post I'll share what I managed to accomplish and my new knitting designs that the Guernsey landscape help bring to life.

Knit East 2015

May 5, 2015 Fiona Alice

Since winding down from Unravel and Edinburgh, excitement has started to build for the summer, along with new plans for this coming year. I'll be traveling home to Nova Scotia in July to visit for the first time since moving to London. I plan to recharge my batteries and anticipate what the autumn holds. New patterns and accessories are at the top of my agenda right now, which I will introduce at the upcoming yarn festivals in the UK. In October I get to return home again for KnitEast, a Maritime yarn festival, in New Brunswick. I had a blast attending two years ago in 2013. I learned a lot from the workshops last time and got to meet so many generous knitters. However, this time I'm incredibly lucky to be teaching at this year's event.

KnitEast is talking place this October 23, 24 & 25. It will be held at the gorgeous Algonquin Resort again and I'm looking forward to seeing the recent renovations. You can read about my last trip to KnitEast on my old blog here. I didn't get to experience fall last year so it will be a treat to see the colours changing here.

I'll be teaching a number of courses throughout the weekend. On Saturday there will be workshops on reversible cables and toe-up socks.

Sunday will have two different workshops on my fingerless mitts series, the Greenforest Gang. The morning class with cover stranded knitting and how to follow the patterns. After lunch, I'll be spending some time talking about my design process and then let participants play around at making a custom mitt.

I know fall is still a few months away, but in the meantime, check out their site for a full list of workshops and registration. I'll see you there!

Edinburgh Yarn Festival

March 25, 2015 Fiona Alice

Just a little over four years ago, I came to Scotland to spend my exchange semester at the Glasgow School of Art. It was during this time where I was introduced to the various textiles industries here in the UK and motivated to pursue knitting after graduation. It was a special weekend to return to Scotland and promote my own designs and business that I've managed to grow since then. Edinburgh Yarn Festival was a fantastic weekend, the organizers, vendors and visitors were all lovely and I was touched with the amount of support from everyone. The icing on the cake was that I got to share the weekend with my mom. She was visiting from home and the festival also happened to be on Mother's Day in the UK. Thank-you to everyone who stopped by to chat. I can't wait to see what next year brings, I'd participate in this event again in a heart beat. Do check out their website, there are tones of photos from the weekend!

My neighbour for the weekend, Dublin Dye. Based in Ireland but originally from Newfoundland!

La Masion Tricotée came all the way from Montreal. It was great to see Fleece Artist's hand dyed yarn again. Made me pine a little bit for home.

Stopped by to say hello to Toft. I picked up a copy of Edward's Menagerie. I'm currently working on the hippo!

Wall of colour at Jamieson's Of Shetland.

My favourite discovery of the weekend, The Border Mill, a small scale mill specializing in UK alpaca.

I couldn't resit the feel of their yarn and the sweetest illustrations. I'm currently making Sous Sous for myself and was able to do a bit of knitting on the stand.