New Club colourway and pattern - Heira

Pattern: Heira

Yarn: January Year In Colour Club - Crystal on PureWash Chunky.

With the return of the original TFA Year In Colour Club format came the return of a that familiar feeling of getting to look forward to the release of a new accessory pattern every other month! There's no doubt about it, it's just plain fun. The difference this year is that though the patterns are included in the Club membership (Club members get the pattern delivered to their inbox about a week or so after all Club skeins have been mailed) the patterns are not exclusive to Club members. That's the new twist! So if you're interested in knitting Heira but can't bite the bullet on a Club membership that's no problem, you totally still can! The Club colourways are exclusive to Club members though, and this one's a good one! Maybe my favourite ever? This is Crystal. Dyed on our PureWash Chunky base it's a very light grey with a splattering of multicoloured speckles. Heavy on the brightest of pinks and with a touch of neon green... it's magical and I love it. I'm planing a sweater. I will absolutely own a sweater in this colourway. Soon.  

This outdoor shot is my favourite. It really shows off the gorgeous speckles in this colourway. It also shows off those lovely decreases! Don't you just love perfect sets of decreases like that? This hat is graphic and geometric and squishy and fun and really makes the most of a single skein of chunky yarn. 

TFA Year In Colour Club memberships are available all year long. It's not to late to sign up! Join now and you'll receive your January skein along with the next batch of shipments in March. 

PureWash is here + 5 New Colours + Free Shipping!

So, big day over here guys. Very big day indeed. I think that the title of this post pretty much sums it up but let me break it down for you in point form just so that this post isn't completely blank:

1) I've added all the PureWash bases, as well as Red Label to the site! Now when you click on the drop down menu the first 6 bases are in stock and will be dyed to order in whatever colourway your heart desires!

2) Speaking of colourways, I've chosen 5 favourites from the Boxing Day Update and added them to our permanent collection of colourways. Hunter, Mint, Prism, Plum Pudding and Lightning are now permanently available. I've already knit a hat in Lightning and I'm so glad that it's here to stay. I love them all!

3) Because this is a lot of exciting news I thought it was worth celebrating so I've cooked up a little promo code for you: enter code "freeshipping" at checkout to receive, you guessed it, free shipping on your order until 11:59PM EST on Friday Jan 27th. 

It has been a busy morning, I'm off to sit and knit a bit. Hope you're having a great Wednesday! 

x Tanis x

ps: I know that so many of you are reading this right now and thinking: "what about Hummingbird!?!?" Stay tuned... we've got a dyed to order update coming down the pipeline next. ;)

 

TFA Stash KAL

We thought it would be fun to start off the year with a stash busting KAL! Every year around this time I see all the beautiful yarns I’ve acquired during the year and want to cast-on ALL. THE. THINGS. That being said, we thought we could get it all kicked off with a quick stash busting KAL. We have a little something up our sleeve for February ;) more on that later! It’s going to be a quick one so we suggest picking a fast 1 skein project. Below are a few pattern ideas to help you work through your stash of single skeins or leftovers:

Ah Caramel, Candygram, Grammy’s Mitts 
Trench Hat, Adelia Mitts, Rove Cowl 
Frosted Alpine Hat, Tantramar Toque, Rook Mitts

The KAL will be run over in the Ravelry group here, but I've listed the details below as well. 

The Dates: Cast on January 20th (today!) and cast off February 10th. 
Rules: Projects must either be knit with TFA yarn or must be a TFA pattern. 
Tags: Tag your project on Ravelry with TFAStashKAL2017 and be sure to hasthtag #TFAStashKAL2017 if you post pics on social media so we can see them! 
Fun: There will of course be some fun prizes too, because that’s always more fun! 
Feel free to use the above image as your project photo!

What are you guys planning on casting-on? I'm still deliberating, I've got until the end of the day to decide right?

Rowan's Striped R&R Hoodie - Mixing Bases!

Pattern: R&R Hoodie by Tanis Lavallee

Yarn: TFA PureWash Worsted in Deep Sea/Ravine and lots of leftover bits of Green Label and a few other random bases as well. 

Ravelry project pages here.

This gorgeous hoodie is the very first thing that I knit with the few sample skeins of PureWash Worsted that I got my hands on last year. Before committing to order boat loads of it and making it our new signature yarn line I had to pick the perfect test colour and the perfect test pattern to try it out with my own two needles. We decided to test a deep, saturated teal blue shade and I was immediately thrilled with how the yarn took the dye, success! For the pattern, I picked a favourite, my R&R Hoodie. To add a bit of personality to the knit and also to test out how our new PureWash would work with our old Green Label I added rainbow stripes using a whole bunch of leftover odds and ends of Green Label and to round out my rainbow I ended up using one or two colours of Orange Label and even Yellow Label leftovers. Bet you can't guess what colour stripe was knit using DK weight yarn! 

Since announcing yesterday that PureWash DK and Worsted will be replacing Yellow Label and Green Label in our permanent collection I've gotten quite a few questions from knitters wondering how well the two bases work together. I guess there is a reason why it's taken me a year to blog about this sweater... because it's the perfect case study to answer that question for you all! The bases work together beautifully. They do feel slightly different, and they take the dye differently, but in stripes or colour work, you will have no trouble. They are both washable and are comparable gauges, care instructions are the same, it should be a very easy transition. I wouldn't try and combine Green Label with PureWash in the same colour for a large project (like if you already had 3 skeins of Green Label in Chestnut and decide to pick up 3 more skeins of PureWash Worsted in Chestnut to knit a sweater - you'd know that the two yarns were different since they take the dye differently) but for stripes or colourwork, the bases work beautifully together. 

This sweater is, hands down, without a doubt, the most worn hand knit in our house at the moment. Chris and I have a few sweaters that we wear often, but none of us has worn a sweater as devoutly as Rowan has worn this beauty over the past year. For months, every single time he left the house he was wearing this hoodie under a puffy vest (sneak peek here and then again but with the boots! my favourite outfit), and then as it warmed up he dropped the puffy vest (proof here and here!), and then summer rolled around and we all forgot about it, but with the return of fall and crisp weather came the return of Rowan's favourite outfit (he even wore it on Halloween!). Needless to say, I am THRILLED by how much he loves it. I recently posted a photo of this sweater, freshly washed, after almost a year of very solid wear by a toddler to Instagram and I think that it's a very good example of how well the PureWash holds up with careful washing and the occasional Gleening. 

And, just because we're on the topic of mixing bases, below is a shot of the Fly Away blanket I knit for the TFA Blanket KAL last summer. It's knit almost exclusively in PureWash DK with 2 colours of Yellow Label added in.

I plan on adding PureWash and removing Yellow Label and Green Label my the middle of next week - I've got a few more colours to photograph and a bit more admit work to do before then, but we're getting there! 

TFA Notions + PureWash News!

I'm excited to announce that we are now selling all of our super cool TFA notions in our webshop here. On top of the custom notions (that were previously only available as part of the now sold out Gift Bundles) we're also offering these lovely TFA notebooks as well as my all time favourite sweater de-piller, the Gleener, in the really beautiful light aqua colourway. I'm on the hunt for the perfect wool wash, in fact, full disclosure, I'm actually on the hunt for the perfect wool wash recipe since I think it would be a pretty fun thing to really customize with some hands on DIY-ing. I'll be in touch if that works out! In the meantime, shop our notions here!

In other big news, I know that a lot of you have been very patiently waiting for me to make PureWash more permanently available and I'm happy to report that I'm gearing up to add ALL OF OUR PUREWASH BASES permanently to the website - That's PureWash Fingering, DK, Worsted & Chunky. As if that weren't enough, I'm also going to be adding our Red Label Cashmere/Silk Single ply yarn back as one of our permanent collection bases because after dealing with it so much over the holidays and the Boxing Day Etsy Update I've realized that I just can't live without more regular access to it. Good news right?

With that said, making room for the PureWash bases means saying farewell to 2 of our current staples; our Yellow Label DK Weight and Green Label Aran Weight yarns will no longer be permanent features, but will certainly be making a few more appearances in Etsy Updates as we work through our current inventory. (Blue Label will remain since it's our workhorse yarn for socks).

Look for the changes to occur in the next week or two. Are you excited? 

Alpine Trail Hat

Pattern: Alpine Trail by Jill Zielinski

Yarn: TFA PureWash Chunky in Natural. The pompom is a recycled fur pompom kit by Harricana.  

Ravelry project pages here.

I've loved this hat since the very first time I laid eyes on it last year. I don't know what took me so long to cast on. It's really the perfect chunky, slouchy hat. I ended up making mine a hair shorter than the pattern recommends only because it meant that I could squeeze the entire hat out of a single skein of Chunky. It came down to the last yard, but it worked! 

I've had this pompom kit from Montreal company Harricana for a while just waiting for the right hat to top. It was a match made in heaven, I love it on this hat! I'm not sure that Harricana even makes these pompom kits anymore as I couldn't fine them on their website, but I don't think that I'll be rushing out to purchase more anyway. It's a kit, so you get the batting, the needle and thread and the recycled fur round to stuff and sew together and my fingers suffered their way through the whole thing. I should have had a thimble, it was rough work. But the pompom is cool and I like that I supported a Montreal company with an interesting mission. 

I would definitely knit this pattern again. Maybe I'll do it soon and stash it away in the Gift drawer because it would be the perfect gift for a number of people on my list. Is mid-January too early to start hoarding Christmas gifts? I always leave it too late... safe to say I'm not making the same mistake this year!

TFA Tuesday - Maya-Elizabeth's Cordova

Maya-Elizabeth's Cordova. Ravelry project page here. Knit in TFA Orange Label in Chris Grey.

This sweater is so good! Clearly I'm a big fan of the pattern since I knitted it in man-sized for Chris. Maya's version is stunning knit in our super lux Orange Label cashmere/silk worsted weight yarn in my favourite light blue/grey shade Chris Grey. Check out her Ravelry project page for a few detailed mods that she made in order for the sweater to be the wardrobe staple that she was dreaming of. She totally nailed it. The fit, the colour, the cozy factor... every time I see a beautiful feminine Cordova pop-up on my feed I wonder if it would be too much to knit myself one. His and hers Cordova's? Cute? Too much? Just right? 

Mood Board Monday - Gold

apple, nails, door, shoes, TFA Cosmic Blue Label in Gold, egg, bokeh, teacups, glitter eye.

apple, nails, door, shoes, TFA Cosmic Blue Label in Gold, egg, bokeh, teacups, glitter eye.

Sometimes I deliberate for ages before landing on what theme or colourway to focus on for a mood board. Other times I sit down at my computer, open Pinterest and the universe just cheers GOLD! On those days I listen and do as the universe bids me and make a stunning, shiny, bright and decadent Gold mood board to kick off your Monday morning with a reminder to treat yo-self!

Don't you just want to cradle that apple or that egg in the palms of your hands and never let them go? So shiny and smooth!

Interesting side note - I've done two past mood boards featuring Gold, Gold & Turquoise and Gold & Grey... but until today, never just Gold. Hmmm.

Thoughts on the old year and the new

So, that photo up there is kinda how I feel about my thoughts on 2016... I've never been good at wrapping things up and when I look back on last year, trying to make an organized collage of projects completed or goals met, well, it's just never that simple is it? I like to at least acknowledge the turning of a new page, but I always think I'm going to be able to wrap up an entire year all neatly and tie it with a bow and that's just never possible for me! 

Last year was a good year for us. My boys are growing and thriving. The business continues to challenge us and allow us to push ourselves creatively. I designed and knit several new patterns last year, most of which won't be released until this year, which I'm really looking forward to. I want 2017 to be the year that I follow through on all my design ideas! I'm so good at conceptualizing a design, knitting it, heck, I'll even sit down and write it all out. But then it sits there, stuck in my computer until I finally muster up the energy for the final push. This year I'm going to get better at following through. Promise. ;)

I'm going to try and implement a bit more structure into my work days. With the kids at home/work with me so much these past few years I've been in survival mode when it comes to work. I'm ok with that, you do what you gotta do to keep everything moving and to keep everyone happy, but this year, now that the boys are both in daycare 3 days a week I'm going to try and organize those three days better. In 2016 I started getting dressed, putting on makeup and even making my bed every morning. So that's already huge win right!?

I'm excited for 2017, but to be fair to 2016 let's do a quick run through the highlight reel shall we?

In 2016 we launched 4 new TFA exclusive PureWash bases. In 2017 you'll be seeing a lot more of them a lot more regularly as they merge onto the website permanently. They are our TFA staples and we can't get enough of them!

2016 also saw us take on our first full time employee Sam! Sam has made a world of difference in our lives. We consider ourselves very lucky to have found such a great match. 

I knit 2 beautiful Fly Away baby blankets this year (the one pictured above and this one). I really love them both but that one up there holds a special place in my heart not only because it was knit for my best friend but also because it was the jumping off point for our new TFA logo (seen here hanging above our studio doors and here on our notions branding.) I love that the design is clearly crafty and colourful, without being overtly knitterly. It makes me happy. 

It wouldn't be right to look back on the year without mentioning our foray into dyeing speckled colourways! This is where dyeing yarn goes from a pseudo-science to a real art. We've always been a bit relaxed with our approach, but speckles take it to a whole new level of wild experimentation. It's been fun!

Honourable mentions: 

  • I really enjoyed participating in Slow Fashion October this year. It was a new type of challenge for me to commit to a weekly blog post that involved so much forethought and critical thinking. I'll be the first to admit that most of my blog posts are more along the lines of "check out these cool socks!" so having to sit down and really flesh out my thoughts on the subject of slow fashion felt good. I'd like to do more of that.
  • Being a guest on the Woolful podcast. That made me feel like a star.   
  • KAL's! We did a few KAL's last year - the big one being the TFA Summer Blanket KAL - and I hope to do lots more this year. There is nothing like the comradely of us all knitting together to make a project really feel special!
  • Kits! Kits! Kits! - Thanks to lots of help from Sam we were able to offer more custom yarn packs (palette's, mitten kits, mini sock yarn skein sets) then ever before. They are so much fun to put together and everybody loves a good mini skein set so we intend to continue making more and more forever and ever! I'm also really jazzed that this year we were able to put together Weaving Kits (some still available!) and a pretty awesome Gift Bundle featuring loads of customized TFA notions that I love. Now that the Gift bundles are sold out I'm looking into alternate ways of selling the notions. Would you be interested in buying them separately? Or all together as a set?   

Wishing you all a wonderful 2017! I can't wait to see what the year has in store for us. 

Happy stitching!

Tanis xo

Christmas Sweaters For The Boys!

Pattern: Flax by tincanknits

Yarn: (left) TFA Green Label in Ravine with Peacock, Seabreeze, Mallard, Lemongrass and Highlighter and (right) TFA Green Label in Chris Grey with Passion, Pink Grapefruit, Highlighter, Seabreeze and Peacock.

Ravelry project pages here and here.

For Christmas this year I knit my boys Flax sweaters and added a few colourful stripes to each sweater in a palette that I thought would suit each boy best. They've worn them a lot these past few days and looked cute as buttons on Christmas day in their new pants and sweaters. Micah is playing it cool and not really giving away wether or not he loves it. Rowan isn't holding back, he loves the pink! I'm thrilled that he likes it. Despite the fact that they've been wearing them with real pants the only time that I managed to get decent shots of them was this afternoon when they both spontaneously decided that it was time to strip down and get changed into pj's. They were in good moods and the light was sort of appropriate so I popped their sweaters over their heads and begged them to sit still for a second. That top photo is my favourite. Capturing sincere smiles from the two of them at the same time is a major victory. I might just frame it for my office. My boys in their colourful sweaters... sigh. I love those two!

Chris has been living in his Christmas sweater too! He looks gorgeous in it and the fit is perfect. It's really good. I'll have loads to share about it soon!

I hope that you're all enjoying this lovely quiet week between Christmas and new Years! I think that it might be one of my favourite weeks of the year. Enjoy!