More Knitwear in Fashion Ads

The use of knitwear in fashion ads always catches my eye. This striking black and white ad is for the bag. However, the texture of that chunky knit sweater really stands out and contributes to the overall success of the shot. In photography, as in life, sometimes you need bold texture to make your point. I love this photo both as a composition and as a look.

To be honest I know Michael Kors mostly as a judge on Project Runway. This ad is actually for the crochet dress and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Hey! Bring back hippie crochet dresses (and tops and bikinis even). But that colour? With the girly hair and boring shoes? Perhaps it's just the over the top flowery, "feminine" styling that's putting me off. On the street, worn by a confident funky young woman, this might work. Big jewelry maybe? Boots? Would that help? Definitely lose the guy in the white pants and ugly sandals.

Sunday Outing

I couldn`t sleep the other night. At one in the morning I found myself sitting at the dining table, playing computer solitaire. Then I heard sirens. Then I smelled something. Leaning over the balcony I saw why. A huge fire was burning in the port lands - a 6 alarm blaze as we later learned. The garbage and recycling transfer station was completely engulfed. I debated waking my partner then decided I`d better as he`d never see such a thing again. The two of us watched the building disappear as dozen of emergency vehicles clearly were engaged in containing - not stopping - the blaze.

This morning, and a beautiful morning it was, we rode our bikes down to survey the damage. The tallest building in the above photo is ours. This is what`s left of a warehouse that was a block in size.

Amazing. Without taking a step I can see this, my favourite view of the city. I just turn on my heels and face slightly more west.

We continued south to Cherry Beach and then to the Spit. The water is record breaking high this spring. The morning was cool, sunny and just windy enough to make nature dance. Our legs were pleasantly tired when we returned home.

New Socks in the City

Trying to take a project shot of just my feet, I failed miserably and got this instead. I suppose the camera was too far away and on the wrong setting. This slightly blurred shot of a windblown me is the result. Interesting. It's fascinating what you look like when you think you're not being photographed. I'm actually quite fond of this "mistake" picture.

This is my version of Cookie A.'s Kelp. The pattern as written has a stitch count that varies from 60 to 90 stitches. I eliminated the final increase row of the repeat (and consequently one of the decrease rows). So my wave pattern is shorter, has less width and stretch, and is, dare I say, tidier looking than the original?. I am very happy with this knit. It's one of those patterns that looks complicated but actually knits up super fast. 

It's nice to have another pair of solid colour socks in the wardrobe. As much as I love beautiful variegated yarn, I find the solids to be much more versatile and easier to wear with my clothes which tend to have a lot of pattern already.

Bits and Pieces

The recent Ravelry post about scrap yarn projects and the beautiful socks featured there, confirmed my long held suspicion that I should be gathering my leftovers and making something fantastic. These socks in progress are being knit with the remains of five previous warm-toned pairs. Aren't they gorgeous? They're knitting up super fast too as they are just stocking stitch with two pearl rows down the front. The Daughter saw me working on them, declared them hers and said I should definitely make more like this. Good thing I have a pile of blue/greens waiting to in the wings for myself.

Here we have my favourite acquisition from the Knitters' Frolic charity magazine sale this year. It's the 1987 Knitters special lace edition. It cost the large sum of fifty cents! I picked it up late in the day and can't believe no one grabbed it earlier - especially as it features Elizabeth Zimmerman's first publication of her famous Pi Shawl pattern. I am currently stash diving to make one. It's about time I added this bucket list pattern to my repertoire.  

Frolic and Fade

Last weekend was the annual Knitter's Frolic here in Toronto. It was, as always a glorious social occasion. How wonderful to spend time catching up with everyone. Since I am no longer an organizer of the TTC Knitalong, I don't see some of these folks near often enough.

West Ridge Fingering.
80% Organic Merino, 20% nylon

The unofficial theme of this year's market place was colour transition. There were so many booths featuring gradual ombre yarns in wool, cotton and silk. There were also a number of vendors who had assembled kits to make this season's hottest shawl, Find Your Fade.

I unintentionally created my own fade when shopping at West Ridge Yarn. While holding my three favourite skeins of fingering weight, trying to decide which to buy, I realized they look amazing together. The vendor agreed with me so I bought all three. I just love the blush, almost chalky, colours the dyer achieves. This coral and green combo is destined to be some sort of colour blocked wrap. "Like a Color Affection but not a Color Affection", as I said at the time. 

Orange Octopus 80% Superwash merino, 20% nylon
Colour:  Galena

My other Frolic purchase was a single skein of Orange Octopus from Stix & Stones. This wonderful looking little store is in North Bay! For those of you unfamiliar with Ontario, that's waaay North. One of the things I love especially about the Frolic is the chance to discover wonderful new vendors like this who carry things I've never seen before. This yarn with it's umber,  blue and beige tones is perfect for The Daughter and will be her next socks. I'm thinking Tanis' Business Casual is simple enough to highlight the yarn while still being an interesting knit.

Sid agrees that the yarn looks yummy.

Made Because I Am A Maker

Enough sadness. April brought much loss and I used my blog to help deal with it. One could argue that a blog - originally a knit blog - is no place for such things but, heck, it`s my blog. I can do as I like with it.

Take your broken heart and turn it into art.

And then I knit a pretty thing. This was done a few weeks ago. It`s my second go at the Wild Plum Shawlette, in a heavier and more brightly coloured yarn than the first. You can see the error I made in the above photo. The needles used for the bottom border (the cast-on edge) were too small. Thus, the border pulls a bit. I love the colour here but am disappointed with my construction. Yet, as spring is here, it is too warm to wear a mohair shawl anyway. I have a suspicion that next fall, when I pull this out again, I will like it much better.