Stars and Snowflakes
Happy Birthday to Us!
Elizabeth and I have shared our partnership running Sweet Paprika for over 10 years now, but we've been sharing many other things in life for much longer than that - including birthday celebrations!
With my birthday falling on the 16th of November and Elizabeth's on the 22nd, we often had shared parties and celebrated our birthdays together. In fact, our younger sister Margaret was also born on November 16th, so the third week in November has been "Birthday Week" for us as long as I can remember.
Socktober (or Sicktober...)
Recipe: Energy Bars
Colour Naming Contest!
Montreal Knitting Teas at La Société Textile
Diary of a Dye Studio Intern: Volume 2
Book Review: Classic Crochet Shawls
Summer is a time when I gravitate towards certain types of projects: lace (not too hot and bulky), socks (small and portable), shawls (don’t have to worry about fit), and crochet (fast).
Hitting three out of four of my vacation-project favourites, this seems like the perfect time of year to review one of Interweave’s latest compilation books: Classic Crochet Shawls. This book includes 20 shawl patterns from the Interweave archives, so some may look familiar as they’ve all been previously published in either books or magazines.
Russian grafting photo tutorial
Russian grafting is a method of joining live knitting stitches and is used as an alternative to Kitchener stitch in our Argyle Christmas Stocking pattern. It is a good choice here because the stripes on the toe would not align exactly if you grafted using Kitchener stitch, so the decorative Russian grafting is used instead.
This particular method of Russian grafting uses a crochet hook to join the stitches. Use a crochet hook that is the same size or slightly smaller than your knitting needles. Russian grafting can also be used to join two separate pieces of knitting.
Diary of a Dye Studio Intern: Volume 1
Annie, one of our interns in the dye studio this spring, has been documenting her experience so far. Here's a little taste of what it's like behind the scenes from her perspective:
Today, I mixed some blue dye. Like with the other colors, we have to be very careful with the recipe. Mixing colors feels like being in Breaking Bad. With my gloves, my apron and my mask, I probably look like a mad scientist. It’s probably my favorite task, creating beautiful colors.
