Crafty Bird

Welcome to my nest of fibre, fabric, paper, and beads...

Name:
Location: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Thanks for dropping by! I have a passion for all sorts of crafty goodness. Creating items with my hands and heart is a perfect complement to my working life.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Victorian Lace in Amsterdam

Hi bloggy world! How are ya? Better yet, how am I? Since I read blogs every day, I really feel I know what everyone is up to, but I have to remember that I must post as well! Lots of news to tell...

Ok, well I have been a bit busy traveling. At the beginning of June I went to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for ten days to attend and present at a conference and also for a few days of rest and relaxation. This is my second visit to Amsterdam and I it confirmed that I really love this city.












I even had a chance to meet up with a knit group and meet some bloggers (Sorry, didn't get everyone's name - but if you visit here, please say hi!). How awesome is it that you can travel half way around the world and feel comfortable enough to go socialize and knit with people you have never met before. Knitting rocks.

My special travel project for my trip to Amsterdam was the "scarf with the open and solid diamond lace edging from Weldon's, 1904" (phew); p. 90, Victorian Lace Today.

I didn't really get a lot of knitting done on the trip and I am now a lot farther along than this photo shows. I love how the border is attached on this scarf by knitting the end section and then picking up stitches along the straight side and continuing up the body of the scarf. The middle section is fairly straightforward and knits up quickly. I really am enjoying knitting with the Addi Turbo lace needles as well as the Handmaiden Sea Silk yarn - the colours are so amazing!

A warning about this pattern though: the photos show a scarf with 3 points, however, the pattern instructs to do 4 repeats of the border chart. I actually did the four repeats and found that the scarf would be fairly wide, so frogged back and continued on with 3 points on the edge. I'm glad I made this decision as I wanted more of a long scarf that I can wrap around my neck several times.

In other knitting, I have progressed a bit on my Icarus shawl, but haven't put much time into it lately.

I'm also working on a pair of pink socks in Regia yarn. I'm not one to wear a lot of pink, but I love it when the pink is vibrant and paired with so many other colours. And a bright pair of socks perks me up when all I seem to wear in the Winter are jeans and t-shirts.

My other projects, well, they are collecting dust...

I recently had a chance to see the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-Mcfee, when she was in Victoria during the Victoria Knit Out weekend (June 9th). She was fantastic! Very entertaining and inspiring. I had her sign my copy of her book and got the obligatory nerdy blogger picture. Oh, and I am holding the sock! See it there at the bottom of the pic!


I also had the chance to meet a lovely fellow blogger, Alyson of The YoYo Knits and her husband, Travis. What a nice couple - I felt so bad for them as the weather was not the best while they were here on their honeymoon. What can you say about west coast weather!?


Speaking of the Knit Out...I have a fibre purchase confession! Well, at least one that I am going to tell you about (yes, there have been a few other accidental yarn/fibre purchases lately. Chock it up to stress). I found some beautiful hand-dyed, lace weight silk in a rusty coral colour from Indigo Moon on Gabriola Island:

And some fingering weight merino in pumpkin (yum). As well as a wrap counter hand-turned by Edward Tabachek of Winnipeg, Manitoba (hmm, can't find a web link), in a beautiful Ash wood.

More exciting news (well, for me), but I'll save that for another post ... soon ... I promise!

Take care!

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