Knit Night On The Brain!

This past weekend in Hamilton was amazing. Supercrawl was so so good. The best ever. I was so impressed and thrilled to share such a great Hamilton event with some friends and family who were visiting. And we completed our giant knit façade of The Brain, which we've been working on since June/July.



We were literally knitting and piecing the installation together as it was going up. And many of us were knitting non-stop in the week leading up to the deadline. Towards the end we pulled out the big guns to speed things up - mega huge knitting needles! Thank goodness for chunky yarn and big needles.



We couldn't have done this without our friends and family. In addition to all the knitters that helped with the actual creation of the piece, we could never have installed it without the tireless help of Gary. THANK YOU GARY! Sky Jack operator extraordinaire. And Kieran and Mike. HEROES. And thank you Heather who patiently let us take over The Brain, inside and out.



Oh, and that amazing knit recreation of The Brain logo? Yeah, that was Courtney. She's the mastermind behind this entire thing. Not only is she speediest knitter I've ever met, she's also a genius when it comes to making up patterns. Three cheers for Courtney!!!




And now it's done. Our first giant Beehive project! If you swing by in the next little while, you can still check out the yellow section with The Brain sign, which is still up.

On The Brain

We are busy busy busy busy bees (how many times can we make this joke?). Our knit installation for Supercrawl has been taking up all of our time for the past couple of weeks. Knit knit knit knit knit knit knit. We'll finally be installing the whole thing tomorrow, and it will be available to view tomorrow evening at the art crawl and all day Saturday at Supercrawl on the facade of The Brain at 199 James Street North.

Over 70 knit scarves, 2 knit window boxes, a knit sign for The Brain, half a dozen crocheted flowers, 18 constructed wood frames later and we're ready. It's going to be incredible. We do hope that you'll be able to check it out. It couldn't have been possible without the local crafting community stepping up and pitching in. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Okay. Back to knitting for us. See you this weekend.

Hip to be Square: Granny Square Blanket!

Way back in the winter our fellow bee Courtney was kind (and patient!) enough to teach a few of us how to crochet simple granny squares at The Brain's regular Knit Night. In general I tend to gravitate towards simple projects that I can pick up and put down easily or do while watching a movie; it makes me feel like I'm being productive! Granny squares were the perfect project to fill my idle hands and use up that ever growing yarn stash. Slowly but surely, one square at a time, you're bound to build up enough little squares to make an afghan without having to tote around a large and daunting project.

Jenna Rose used some gorgeous light airy colors for her granny squares (above).

I love natural colors of wool and using Canadian or hand spun yarns, so for my project I used up some hand spun Manos del Uruguay left over from an old project and purchased some Briggs and Little yarn while on christmas vacation in Nova Scotia. I love Briggs and Little because it's a Canadian company and is very inexpensive for pure Canadian wool, which they buy direct from the producer. It makes an ideal yarn for natural dyeing as well as for large projects like blankets.

I started by dyeing some of the wool with onion skins, one of the easiest and most rewarding natural dyes to work with. After saving up my onion skins until i had enough to fill a pot, I dyed two balls of natural white "Heritage" (2 ply) yarn from the Briggs and Little line. I boiled the onion skins 'til the water was full of their dark rust color, then I filtered them out and placed the water back on to boil. I dyed one skein first which soaked up the strong darker yellow right away - the ball in the back of the picture below. Then I dyed the second skein in the remaining water - this is called an exhaust bath. The water is not as potent with dye but this second round will produce a softer, often more beautiful, shade of yellow.

To go with the natural yellows, I picked up some Heritage yarns in shades of grey and started making the granny squares that Courtney had taught me. The stitch was surprisingly simple. Starting with a small circle made with a few chain stitches and then working outwards with little "shells" of three double-crochet stitches followed by a few chain stitches you eventually get a square. There are many great books and videos on making granny squares and tons of variations of patterns but I thought I'd stick to the simple square, mixing up my colors to make every square just a little bit different from the last. Soon enough (and thanks to a couple seasons of "Mad Men" that I definitely needed to catch up on...) I had a big pile of granny squares ready to be stitched together into a blanket.

As I made up the squares I added in some bright fun bits of left over wool in my stash to fill out the blanket and add some different colors!

Using the same basic pattern of three double crochet stitches I edged each square, and stitched them together by picking up the edge of the previous square as I went. When I was all done I edged the whole blanket with a gradation of grey to black yarns to frame the whole thing making the lighter grays and yellows pop in the middle of the blanket.

And just in time for summer weather, voila! the perfect picnic blanket for Bay Front Park!

I think I'll spend my whole summer right here.


photos by Jenna Rose and Anna Taylor

Beehive Excursion: Knitter's Frolic

For the past 14 years, the Downtown Knit Collective have been hosting an annual Knitter's Frolic - a two day knitter's marketplace with over 50 vendors selling the finest yarns and fibre art supplies.

I attended the event last year for the first time, and was blown away at the sheer volume of yarn to be had. It was incredible. Needless to say, when I caught wind of the dates for the Frolic this year, I was super excited!

Fellow Bee Courtney and I decided to check out this year's market together, and it did not disappoint.

The Knitter's Frolic was held at the Japanese Cultural Center, and we arrived right at 9am to quite the impressive line up! Obviously we weren't the only ones excited for some yarn shopping that morning.

Right away the Centre was buzzing with excited knitters, crocheters, and fibre artists; fun!



In addition to the marketplace, the Knitter's Frolic also hosted a wide array of workshops, ranging from crochet for beginners, to entrelac on the round, and pattern drafting. Courtney and I decided to start off the day with an introduction to fair isle, taught by Gloria Williams.

I've always had trouble wrapping my head (and fingers) around knitting with both my left and right hands, but thanks to this workshop, I've got my continental knitting skills down pat. Neither Courtney nor I have ever had formal lessons in knitting, and we both found it very helpful to have a instructor to follow, rather than trying to figure it out ourselves.

After all our hard work in class and a quick snack to boost our energy, it was time to indulge in some yummy yarn!

Beautiful display by Manos Del Uruguay.

Viola Fibers!

We had the pleasure to make acquaintance with Emily Folden, the beauty and brains behind Viola Fibers. Isn't she adorable? Her yarn and colourways are to dye for (pardon the pun)!

Mmm, sock yarn! Sock yarn is my preferred yarn to knit with. Courtney took home several skeins in this curry colourway. We thought it was particularly Beehive-ish! Very pretty. I took home a really pretty robins egg blue skein; the one pictured below.



Now the question is: what to make from our newly acquired stash! That will have to be another post altogether.

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A quick thank you to all that applied to our Beehive Summer Craft Fair! We will be reviewing the applications this week, and will let applicants know of our decisions by May 12th.

Happy Wednesday!

Our Roots, Part II: Knit Nights at The Brain

I'm quite certain that Wednesday evenings have become my most favourite night of the week. Why, you ask? Because Wednesdays are Knit Nights at The Brain, of course! And it just so happens that I end up meeting only the best kind of folk during Knit Night -- like the majority of the ever-so-crafty Beehive Collective.







Knit Nights began last June, when my friend Melissa and I thought it would be great to facilitate a craft circle in one of the cozy spaces along James St North -- the growing arts district in our fair hometown. We approached one of my favourite hangouts, The Brain, to see if they'd be interested in playing host. Happily, they obliged! We then agreed to meet each Wednesday from 7pm to 9pm, and to put forth an open invitation to all those crafty and willing to join in the fun. Knit Nights have been going fantastically strong ever since.

While attendance varies each week, there are usually a couple of us bees present to keep the circle warm, as well as other talented regulars.

Also, despite it's name, Knit Nights at The Brain welcomes all forms of handicraft, including crocheting, hand quilting, embroidery, tatting, whatever floats your boat. Even our pretty golden poufs were assembled during a Knit Night session!



At last weeks session, both Jenna and Kate learned how to crochet.



With the mother of all craft how-to books at hand, Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework.



and Courtney's expertise...



They proved successful! Voila, granny square!



Meet Tim! Yes, he's knitting a Sackboy. Don't bother asking for the pattern though -- this talented fellow designed it himself, on the spot! Tim is a knitter extraordinaire, and in the months that he's been frequenting Knit Nights, he's made a variety of vegetables, a raccoon, an elephant, miniature hats and scarves for wine bottles... the list goes on and on! The kicker: Tim knits simply because he enjoys the challenge. I haven't once witnessed him working on a project he intended to keep for himself. Amazing!



Our dear friend and co-owner of The Brain, Ms. Heather South (who we happen to love, a lot!), is a total gem and always makes sure to keep us waist deep in delicious treats. This week, tiramisu! Past treats include poppy squares, a plate of assorted cookies and brownies, apple strudel, and custard tarts from Ola's Bakery! Between Heather and the always charming barkeeper, Ken, we're well looked after at The Brain.



As the evening comes to an end, we can always count on a visit from our dear friend, Kieran. A regular since the very beginning, he never disappoints with his highly enthusiastic praise for Knit Night. Now if we can only get him knitting!

If you're interested in a session of friendly crafting, please feel free to drop in and join us! After all, we do keep a stash of spare needles with us at all times for that very reason.

Photos courtesy of Elizabeth