Domaine Chambord

A blog post, you say? What is this madness?! I thought surely this blog had gone the way of the dinosaurs!

Yes, yes... It's been 8 months since my last confession... err... blog post, but I'm happy to say I'm back! I managed to get a PhD, run a 10k race, go to a bunch of weddings, and knit a lot of baby clothes in that time, and I'm sure I'll get to all of it in the next few blog posts. (Yes, I promise I won't just post once and leave you hanging.)

I'd like to begin again more or less where I left off. Over the Christmas holidays, my mom took me and my cousin to a lovely little farm and yarn shop called Domaine Chambord, located in the small town of Moe's River in the municipality of Compton in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.



It was an icy day in December, but the owner, Kathy, was more than happy to show us around to pet the animals. They had sheep, of course, both Shetland and Jacob...



And lively alpacas...



And funny-looking ducks...



And llamas, and cashmere goats!



They even had a cute little guy who (I think) is a cross between a llama and an alpaca. He was extremely friendly and kept making funny little noises at us.



After seeing the adorable animals, we headed towards the yarn shop. It wasn't very large, but there was plenty of yarn spun from the fibre of the animals we had just visited.



Each skein had on its label a picture of the animal that yarn had come from, which was a nice touch.



Mom couldn't resist fondling the cashmere (and I think she ended up taking some home with her).



And I had a hard time resisting jumping straight into this big basket of alpaca fibre...



At Domaine Chambord, they also sell some knitted products: a few hand-knit scarves as well as knitted socks made with these amazing antique knitting machines they have lining one whole wall of the shop.



They all appear to be in working order, and if you go to their Facebook page, you can see a bunch of pictures of the sock-making in action. I found it fascinating, and I hope to be able to visit Domaine Chambord again!

Knitter's Frolic Goodies!

Ugh... Yes, I know the Knitter's Frolic was almost a month ago, but as mentioned in my last post, I've been a terrible blogger of late. Part of it can be attributed to two major public outreach events only a week apart, and the other part can be blamed on committee meetings, paper deadlines, and all that other graduate student stuff. Anyway, let's put that all aside and think about the fibery goodness from the Knitter's Frolic instead!

I was actually quite restrained when it came to buying things. I really wanted to get an ornate drop spindle from Gemini Fibres and to buy ALL THE CASHMERE from Roving Winds Farm, but I was a very very responsible shopper.

My first purchase was these gorgeous handmade buttons from the woodlot. I totally can't remember what kind of wood this is, but I just love the pattern that the wood grain gives. You should check out some of their other buttons in their Etsy shop... so pretty!

I also got a big fat bag of fibre from Hopeful Shetlands. The mix I got has a lot of lamb's wool in it, so it's veeeeeerrrrrryyyyyy soft. It was a pretty good deal too...

Speaking of fibre, I also got a Fleece Artist braid from the Rose Haven Farm Store. I just couldn't resist the colours. For some reason, my palette preference is moving more towards the greens and yellows, where I've always preferred blues and purples. At any rate, I have a lot of fibre to spin with... and I guess it's time for a fibre diet too, until I get around to spinning up what I have.

Finally, as an early birthday present (and it's my birthday tomorrow, so I get to open it!), my Mom bought me this delectable sock kit from the SOAK booth. It includes a jar of Peppermint Heel Foot Cream and a skein of Lorna's Laces Solemate sock yarn. It's so luxurious, I'm gonna have to find the perfect pattern for it...

Other highlights included the Fleece Artist tasting booth, where we were allowed to knit with all sorts of crazy beautiful and luxurious yarns, and strange bacon and egg yarn (found on the internet here) and textured felted weirdness from The Black Lamb's booth:

Knitting and Hockey...

Was a better combination ever thought of? Well, perhaps cookies and milk, or bacon and eggs, but knitting and hockey still go pretty well together. This weekend, I was able to combine them at the Pucks 'N Purls, which, like the Stitch 'N Pitch, allows knitters to do what they do best at a sports game. However, unlike the baseball variant of this event, it's not so hot that you have absolutely no desire to touch anything wooly. This time the Toronto Marlies were playing the Hamilton Bulldogs.

I went with my buddies from my knitting group, and you can see their pictures and descriptions as well: Alia's here, and Erin's here. I managed not to be a total noob this time, and actually took pictures of my own as well! So here goes...

My favourite part of any ice rink event is watching the zamboni do its thing:

And my favourite part of any sports event is getting giant pretzels:

But who can resist a little good-natured fist-fighting! (There were actually half a dozen fights this game. It was awesome.)

Of course, there was knitting:

And knitting-related activities, such as this fastest knitter contest (see their introduction video here):

I think the one on the left won:

Hey, who shrunk the Marlies?!

This referee has all the answers:

We won! Go Marlies! Go!

Good times...

Victorian Adventures!

And no, I didn't time travel... I recently spent a few days in Victoria, BC to hear the premiere of my daddy's opera, Mary's Wedding. It was certainly a great success, and I don't think there was a dry eye in the audience. I bawled my eyes out during almost the entire second act... Anyway, while I was there, I managed to do a bit of sightseeing, and yes, of course, visit some of Victoria's wonderful yarn shops!

I know my priorities, so I'd like to first mention that Victoria's yarn shops are all wonderful. There are three in the downtown core (and they were within a 15-minute walk of our hotel!): the Button and Needlework Boutique (whose display my mom can be seen drooling over in the above picture), Knotty by Nature, and the Beehive Wool Shop. Our first stop, the Button and Needlework Boutique was extremely nice, and the ladies there were very very friendly. Also, they had a WALL OF BUTTONS! Mom and I were impressed...

I picked up a skein of a very lovely silk mohair blend called Shibui Knits Silk Cloud (a very apt name, let me tell you) in the wasabi colourway that I just couldn't stop petting...

The next day, we went to Knotty by Nature, which was even more fabulous, if that's possible, and certainly my favourite crafty stop on the trip. Most of the stuff in the store was local hand-dyed and hand-spun yarns, and they also had more roving than I've ever seen in one place. I seriously wanted to buy all of it. The nice fellow who worked there also offered to show us how he uses his drum carder to make amazing fibre blends... I totally need a drum carder now. The finished product totally looked like some sea god's beard, but it was so sparkly and soft and amazing...

I couldn't resist buying a little bundle of blended fibre from them.

The third and final yarn store we visited was the Beehive Wool Shop. It was very nice as well, though after the last two, it seemed kind of ordinary. They had a good selection of very nice yarns, but weren't any more special than any yarn store I could have gone to in Toronto. Even so, I managed to walk away with some very nice sock yarn (Diamond Yarn Luxury Collection Soxy) that was being sold at a very reasonable price. I know, I'm weak...

Besides indulging in all that yarny goodness, we saw a whole lot of Cowichan sweaters...

Had tea and biscuits at the Murchie's Tea store...

Gazed upon the beauty of the Victorian harbour...

And enjoyed some very good food, including this beautiful pumpkin spice latte...

It was a really great trip, and I would certainly visit Victoria again, given the chance. And now, if you're ever there, you'll know where to get your fibre fix!

The Creativ Festival and my incredible desire to become an alpaca farmer...

Because really, who could resist this face!

Photo courtesy the Happy Seamstress.

That's Ozzie, the resident alpaca at the Spinning Wheel Alpacas booth. We are totally best friends forever.

Photo courtesy the Happy Seamstress.

Right, so Ozzie (a.k.a. the best alpaca ever) was one of the features at the Creativ Festival, which I just happened to go to this past Saturday with my friends Joanna and Lisa. I didn't go absolutely nuts on the purchases, which is sometimes a problem when presented with so much crafty awesomeness, but I attribute that mostly to having taken a Steampunk Wire-wrapping Jewelry class with June Beach in which I created this crazy thing:

My favourite part is the dangly steampunk button at the bottom. I must admit, however, that my wallet didn't escape the festival completely unscathed. I splurged on this gorgeous sparkly and super soft baby alpaca yarn:

I also picked up this absolutely gorgeous hand-carved shawl pin:

One booth was selling used crafting books (at least I think they were used) for very reasonable prices. I got Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge for a mere $10.

I got a bunch of buttons and beads, some of which were free, and the rest of which were pretty cheap:

The best find of the day was this tin of buttons I got for $5 filled with these really cool vintage-style buttons, none of which I disliked (and you all know how rare that is when you have a random assortment of anything).

I really love those cameo ones...

And now I'm all inspired to make stuff! If only I didn't have that pesky PhD to worry about... sigh.

Double-knit Potholders: Now Officially a Wedding Tradition

I recently returned from the Eastern Townships where some very awesome friends of mine got hitched. They did the deed in the most beautiful place on Earth, Baldwin Mills (I took some pictures last summer). I'm not joking. This is what I woke up to the day after the wedding:

The ceremony was beautiful (partly because I was asked to play violin at the last minute), the dinner was delicious (there was a whole roast lamb), the booze was plentiful (there was a bathtub of beer), and the party was incredibly fun. Those Baldwins sure do know how to get married. Anyway, as has become a tradition for me (see here, here, and here), I made the couple some double-knit potholders as a wedding present.

As usual, I tried to make the designs representative of the couple. The pixelated deer on the left is from the groom's now very successful game Sword & Sworcery. The mounted deer head on the right has become the couple's personal logo. They even used it on the wine bottles at the wedding.

If you feel like knitting Sword & Sworcery deer or Dead Deer potholders of your own, here are the charts for both designs (click for larger size):

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Speaking of double-knitting, I've written a tutorial for making your own double-knit fabric over on the Happy Seamstress. You should check it out!