Fernandina Fibers

I little while ago I opened a little Etsy fabric shop starting out with a small supply of different quilting cottons. I've now got the domain as well so I shall blog about all my fabric and fiber conquests there: www.fernandinafibers.com

Second FO of the Year

My Mum's Fair Isle Hat has been completed! I crocheted around the edges so it wouldn't roll but it made it stretch out oddly when not on my son's head. Ah well. I feel too lazy to take it out and redo, I'll just keep that fact in my notes ( I take extensive notes on my knitting, literally 2 notebooks full so far). He looks so cute though and he loves it! He wore it to school today and was very excited.



He also took his very first school project with him and I have discovered how much mothers are expected to help with such things. Good thing I love little odd and crafty artsy things. My son and I had a lot of fun and got our hands very gluey making a picture out of a household item. We chose yarn scraps since they are in abundance. He decided on making a poster of his favourite dinosaur, ornithomymus. He picked that dino out himself, maybe he's a budding dino doc.

Fair Isle First

I can't actually remember when I started knitting. Unfortunately I was not one of those knitters who was taught young by a mother or grandmother (that would have been nice, knitting would really have helped me in high school). I know I started knitting around Christmas time and I think my son was turning one, because I really can't imagine myself learning to knit with a one month old baby. So that would put it around November 2004, just over five years ago. And in all that time, cables, intarsia, short row socks, felting, pattern publishing...

I never once knit fair isle.

I know, never once! Now I do live on the border of Florida and Georgia so it's not like I have snow to contend with and therefore desperately need warm and beautiful sweaters for months out of the year. I should be knitting nothing but cotton tanks and stuffed animals but I love to pretend I have a winter to plan for. I even started selling all my gloves on Etsy because I can never use them but I so wanted to knit them.

Still never managed to knit fair isle....until todayI know it's nothing spectacular but I am very very proud of myself. It's the Fair Isle Hat from IK Holiday Gifts 2006. I started it yesterday as a knit for my son and really loved the process. Which is probably why I finished all of the main hat part in one day, big accomplishment for me.
It's a great project for resolution time too since the pattern is from my library stash and the yarn was in my stash though it is a gift for my son, not uber personal knitting but close enough.

I'm already dreaming of knitting another fair isle pattern. Just gotta make room in my wip basket.

New Years Resolution

How great is this color?! It's one of my new Bella Shorties in some Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk that has been hiding out in my stash. I think this is a great color to start the new year!

On the New Years Resolution front I have decided that I

1: must get in personal knitting time, since knitting everything for business is starting to suck the life out of my favourite pastime

2: must begin to knit from my library

and 3: must join and FINISH a KAL.

I've joined many over the years but have never finished a single one, for which I am deeply ashamed, or at least perturbed by my absolute lack of follow through. I've decided to start out with a project that hits all 3 marks, Cherie from Rowan Vintage Knits.And here is my progress so far... It's from a book I own that I have not yet knit from, it's going to be part of the vintage KAL I joined in my Anthropologie knits Group on Ravelry AND it's for personal use, no gifting or selling. Icing on the cake? I have the exact amount and type of yarn needed for the project, Rowan Yorkshire Tweed dk, which I bought 2 years ago on sale because I figured... why not?!

So far the changes I've made to the pattern include using twisted rib rather than regular and adjusting for it to be knit in the round with purl stitch fake side seams. Just finished the ribbing and am on to the main event. Wish me luck!

New Years Approacheth

I forgot there for a bit all about the New Years Resolution thing. I'm pretty sure my resolutions will have to do with my business and my personal knitting. I've begun collecting Rowan mags and books (and have been for years) and I just realized the other day that I've ever completed one knitted item from them or for most anything else in my knitting library. Something to ponder.

On an actual knitting note, I've completed a small series of gloves for my Etsy and I'm very happy with them. I love knitting shorties, little fingerless mitts in pretty colors, and I discovered while knitting all my cabled gloves this Christmas that I really love working with Swish Bulky from Knitpicks. It's so soft and lovely to knit up. The colors are vibrant too!. Here's some of the gloves:

A Very Bella Christmas

So my Bella gloves turned out to be quite popular this Christmas! I never expected them to do so well. I really loved the way the merino wool ones turned out. Such soft fabric and it made the cables really pop!

Glove Day

I'll put some of the gloves I've been making up here to. I'm thinking I should dive into something with more heft, I feel accomplished because projects are getting done but I guess I'm ready for the next step in my little 12 step program to FO knitting success.

This was my first fingerless. I'm still tweaking the pattern and this has definately become the "medium to large" hand size. Me....tiny hands

These were next in line. I recently went through my stash and pulled out any yarn that I don't really want in my stash and I'm trying to use it up this season. These were next in the evolution of my glove making....they do actually fit me and my mom keeps trying to steal them.

These are a bit punky funky. I had originally had oompa loompa arms in mind (the burton ones) but wanted to make sure I'd finish the project so small ones first.