Here are a couple of finished objects that I'm excited about. Above is Levenwick by Gundrun Johnson for Brooklyn Tweed, in Debbie Bliss Donagal Tweed. I only paid $30 for 12 balls of this stuff from a yarn shop in NYC. I bought it online and expected the colour to be atrocious and to have to over-dye it, but I love it. For someone like me it's sometimes good to have limited colours to choose from or else everything I knit would be some version of olive, chartreuse or golden yellow. Below is Sam's first hand-knit reglan pullover, one of Jane Richmond's patterns, knit with merino yarn that I dyed for the FSA Yarn Club a couple years back (this one, and this one) In other news, we have moved yet again! This one is a keeper though, we are super happy in downtown Jersey City. In fact I love it here. When I go to NYC for the day I often find myself thinking, 'okay, let's get off this busy street' only to find that there is no such thing. So, when I get off the subway in Jersey, its calmness is so welcoming and I just soak it up and thank God that I don't live in Manhattan. I'm quite sure I wouldn't survive five years there. Our last place was in a more remote area of Jersey City that was too far the opposite of NYC, the kind of place that really required a vehicle, so I'm glad to have found a happy medium only a few blocks from the Metro. Here are Sam and I at the Cloisters where we visited the Unicorn Tapestries. I was in heaven. I'll be going back sans Sam for sure so I can really spend some time with them. I wrote about my first impression of them here on the Mirrix blog where I'll be blogging for the next eight months. I am a participant in their ridiculously awesome social market campaign where they send me their products (as well as some from their sponsors) and I blog for them. So far I am over-the-moon in love with my 16" Big Sister tapestry/bead loom.
You can follow my Mirrix posts here: http://www.mirrixlooms.com/author/janna-smfam2014/ Here I am with my new tapestry loom :)
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I just got back from the most relaxing time with family in BC. We had decided that this was the best time for me to go and introduce Sam to the Fam since it was a good opportunity to give Danny some alone time in Montreal to complete his thesis. As I write he is applying the finishing touches before he sends it off tonight. Go Danny! The past three weeks in BC were magical. I spent a lot of quality time with my mom, great-aunt Franca and uncle John who all helped tremendously with all things Sam. I mostly appreciated the fact that they made sure that he had a well fed and rested mama. I even ventured to continue our cloth diaper regimen, which wouldn't have been possible without Franca's help in the laundry department. Franca is my 'artist aunt' who is super talented in the fibre arts. She creates art dolls, amazing vintage jewelry re-makes and has an impressive collection of hand-made quilts in her repertoire. One of her santos art dolls (a bride) is currently being featured in Art Doll Quarterly in the Summer 2013 issue. Yay Franca! It was so nice staying with her and John in beautiful Davis Bay, where I discovered the best coffee shop on the Sunshine Coast, Straight Coffee. I couldn't believe my ears when they offered my latte in cow, coconut, soy or almond milk. Amazing! And the food is so delicious. Off my needles... I finished my lovely Strathcona scarf while I was on the coast and finally gave it to Franca (a few months later than planned). It's knit with a double strand of Brassard lace yarn; one grey wool, one white cotton. Visit to Maiwa... One place that I must always go when I visit BC is Maiwa, my fave store of all time. They recently received a shipment ofvintage kantha quilts and I just had to see them in person. Each one is original and hand-stitched, and they're only $150.00! If only didn't live on a student budget. I was lucky to leave with a lovely natural-dyed, hand-printed linen tunic, thanks to my generous mom-in-law :)
As awesome as it was I'm glad to be back in Montreal with the hubby, where it is breezy and 28 degrees :) Janna In days of late life has been really exciting. I am blessed in so many ways, and feel so very thankful every day. To begin with, I am 36 weeks pregnant and loving every moment. In one week I will be full-term and baby could arrive any day!! As I write, the wee one has hiccups :) which he/she gets at least 3 times a day since week 32. I feel really lucky to be healthily pregnant, since I had spinal surgery nine years ago and have ever-since wondered if my back issues would return severely, or complicate my pregnancy in some way. I really sympathize with Melissa at Sweet Fiber Yarns, who is going through a very similar experience to me when I was her age. The good news is, it does get better, the pain does go away, AND a normal pregnancy is totally still an option. So, there's that news and then there's this: Not only am I going to give birth to my first child soon, but I am also going to be moving to New York City for five years in September! This is brand new news for Danny and I, since he just received acceptance into a PhD program two days ago. This is huge and exciting and, I'm not going to lie, a little daunting, but we are lovers of adventures. When Danny and I moved to Montreal in 2010 we planned to stay for 2 years while I finished my BFA in Fibres, and then go right back to BC. In that time we have fallen in love with Montreal, and the many friends we've made here, and even considered living here permanently, or at least for another few years. It's a hard decision to move back to BC where everything is twice as expensive and the wages are the same. Also in our time here, Danny entered into a Masters program at McGill (Education and Counselling Psychology) and found his calling. I've never seen him more engrossed in his work and loving every stressful moment. So, as you can imagine, this lead him to apply to PhD programs, and lo and behold he got into his dream program, Urban Education at CUNY. So, off we will go in September with our new little family (including the cat). I'm thrilled to say the least. One thing that excites me is the possibility of doing an MFA there in a few years (a girl can dream). All of these changes have lead me to wonder what will become of this blog here on VY. I feel like a bit of a fraud blogging from so far away and for so many years. I never imagined that I would be away from BC for so long. So I'm thinking of merging my personal,workshops and this VY blog to be one entity. I'm sure this won't happen for a bit, since once the babe arrives blogging will be the last thing on my mind, but these are thoughts I'm having. Any feedback from fellow bloggers and readers would be much appreciated :) Yesterday I wore my lasted FO to the baby shower, below are some better photos. It's called the Artemis Cowl and I knit it in Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage. In true knitterly style, I broke my own rule about not adding to my stash when I laid eyes on this gorgeous colourway, Candlewick. I love a good golden yellow. Some notes on the pattern: I cast on 10 less stitches and did 4 rows of garter stitch instead of the slip stitch boarder. For binding off I tried something different and did 2-stitch short rows before binding off each pair, in an attempt get a picot look. I really like the eyelets that resulted from the short rows. Has anyone done this kind of bind-off before? Does it have a name? I'm still knitting my Strathcona. Knitting lace with dull needles has made this project lag on for much longer than I wanted. I've also cast on a bunch of other projects, which is not my style at all, and learned that many WIP's does not work for me.
To solve my dull needle problem I've considered purchasing some interchangeable needles, since buying needles one pair at a time gets expensive. Also, I'm more convinced than ever that interchangeables are a great investment after learning about the magic loop method, for knitting small circumferences with long circular needles, over at Jane Richmond's website. It blew my mind a little. With that said, I really don't know which ones to buy. So if you have a preference I'd love to here your comments. I knit this little shrug for Noa, the little girl I used to Nanny. She said really likes it, and then asked for it in pink. Of course I'm making her one.
Yes, it's true. I, Janna Vallee, am a compulsive felter.
When I was finally finished my Debbie Bliss vest, I tried it on and it wasn't quite right: too big, the v-neck was much too long....I'm assuming I should have checked the gauge before I started (you know, like they recommend). But, Like the stubborn knitter I am, I neglected to follow the rules of the pattern. THEN, I had this fabulous Idea that I would just simply felt it to fit me. Yes, just like they said in felting class.....'You can always fix felted things, shape them into desired shapes.' So, off I went to felt. Actually it went more like this: I had worked all day then spent about 2 1/2 hours finishing my vest, and I needed a major break. So, off to the bath I went for my evening soak before bed. In the corner of my eye was the over-sized vest, taunting me....'felt me, felt me'. So I drained the bath a bunch, added some fine fabric soap and had a bath with my sweater. Before I knew it, it was stretching out to be about twice the size. It seemed the wool was felting but the holes between each stitch were getting bigger. I panicked and pulled it out. As it lay to on a towel to dry I felt sad that it wasn't my nice fluffy sweater anymore. So, I thought I'd give felting another try (don't ask). I stuck it in the washer (that always worked well for me with thrift store sweaters that I wanted to felt). But as it swished around I remembered the many hours I had spent knitting it. This wasn't just another thrift store sweater! So, I pulled the sweater out and stuck it in the kitchen sink.......and continued to hand felt it in hot water and soap (I was a mad woman on a mission). The more I felted the shorter it got. It wasn't shrinking width wise! Why God, Why? So I gave up. I am officially grieving the loss of by vest sweater. The saddest part is that I could have gotten away with wearing it. It wasn't awful by any means. I am a compulsive felter and I need not felt. Too bad my felting project is due next week. J Here's what I've done so far. I'm just beginning to separate the front for the V-neck. I wanted to do an update on this 'cause I needed to show off this yarn. I'm in love with it! So YUMMY!
I found out that there is a good reason as to why I should have begun with the back; when I finish this right hand side of the front I have to cast off a bunch and then continue knitting just the collar. That's where the back comes in; I have to measure collar to be half as long as the neck space on the back. Oops! Let's see what happens when I just take a shot at it. Janna I began knitting the vest on the cover of the new Debbie Bliss magazine. But instead of using the yarn recommended I'm using my new bulky blue Eskimo 1 ply yarn that I got from a yarn blow-out sale in Surrey. I'm only about 6 inches into the front, but I'm so excited I had to share. check back soon for a photo of the finished product! For more on the blow-out sale check out the blog of Vancouver Yarn .Com
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About me:
I'm a west coast Canadian gal who after completing a BFA in Fibres at Concordia University in Montreal moved to the New York metropolitan area where I am pursuing my art practice while learning the ropes of motherhood.
June 2021
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