holidays

Delighted to Announce…

By Stephanie

I was so excited when Sharon Silverman, crochet designer and author of Tunisian Crochet: The Look of Knitting with the Ease of Crocheting, asked if she could use my Luna Laceweight yarn in a new design.   And I was delighted to dye a brand-new colourway for her to work with.

And now, I am absolutely thrilled to present her stunning Moonmist Shawl and the yarn I’ve created for it, Luna Laceweight in Evening Fog.

© Sharon Silverman, Used with Permission

The Moonmist Shawl pattern is worked out from the center back in one direction and then the other, to create a delicate piece of lacework so light that it fairly floats across the shoulders.

When she first described to me the design she had in mind, I saw it draped delicately over a beautiful evening gown.  I imagined holiday parties, sparkling lights, glasses of champagne…  I wanted to create a colourway as ethereal as the Moonmist Shawl itself…

Luna Laceweight in Evening Fog


As day slips away and the light grows soft, the Evening Fog rises up out of nowhere and gently transforms the world with a veil of translucent blue-grey.

This is over 100g of wonderfully smooshy Luna Lace Weight yarn, a 2-ply blend of Silk and superfine Merino wool that is amazingly light and soft to the touch. Where there are multiple skeins pictured, each is sold separately.


Fiber Content: 20% Silk, 80% Merino Wool
Weight: Approximately 3.6oz / 100g (approximately 1300 yards per 100g)
Colourway: Evening Fog
Care Instructions for the final item: Hand wash in tepid water, Lay flat to dry.

Each item is individually hand-dyed by the SpaceCadet, using professional grade acid dyes which are mixed by hand from primaries. Please be sure to buy enough for your project as the colours may not be able to be reproduced exactly.
SpaceCadet Creations is a smoke-free, pet-free environment.
Please remember that the colours in pictures may vary depending on your computer monitor. The colours in the photos are as accurate as possible.

Cooking Up Something Special

By Stephanie

In every home across the country this week, the scene will be exactly the same…  There will be mixing bowls filled with the most amazing treasures, and pots gently bubbling on the stove.  There will be the old favourites and new recipes, last minute changes and quick saves when things go wrong.  A pinch of this and a dash of that…

And it’s been no different here.   Well…  ok, then, maybe a wee bit different here in the SpaceCadet house.  Here’s what I’ve been busily cooking up this week…

Stella Yarn in Spice Trade


BFL Fiber in SeaFoam


Stella Yarn In Funky Ballet Shoes


Celeste Yarn in Frost


BFL Fiber in Flock of Parrots

 

Celeste Yarn in Iris


…Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

 

Pattern Roll-Call: Perfect, Absolutely Perfect!

By Stephanie

I know two little girls who are mad-crazy-keen about ballet. They begin dancing the moment they wake up, and they dance all through their day, and they don’t stop dancing until they go to bed. Actually, they probably don’t stop dancing until they fall asleep — I am quite certain they lie in the dark and practice their tondues under the bedsheets until sleep finally steals them away.

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And they would wear their ballet shoes every single day if they could. But they’re not allowed, because the ballet shoes get lost — absent-mindedly set down on the wrong shelf or accidentally kicked under the sofa or sinking slowly to the bottom of the toybox — and are nowhere to be found on ballet day. And so those most-beloved shoes get secreted safely away after each class and the disappointed girls must instead practice their dancing in their socks. It’s not at all ballerina-like!

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I’m always on the lookout to bring you great patterns that would make the most of single skeins of SpaceCadet yarn, and when I came across the Open House Socks by Kate Atherley, technical editor of Knitty and knitting editor of A Needle Pulling Thread, I fell in love them! They’re sweet, romantic, and cheeky all at once — and, as a bonus, each pair takes only about half a skein of yarn. They’d make a great quick-knit holiday gift — perfect for padding around the house on cold winter days. I looked at them and thought, they make me want to… dance!

© Kate Atherley, Used with Permission

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Wait… Make me want to dance?!? I thought immediately about those two little dancers… I could knit them ballet shoes! I could knit them lovely ballet shoes so they could dance all week whilst their real ballet shoes were safely tucked away. There could be no better Christmas present for them on Earth!

In the dyeing studio, I sat and thought for a while about the perfect colour. I could do them in the standard ballet-shoe pink-beige but… well, while these two are budding ballerinas, they are also little girls who love all the stuff that little girls everywhere love: sparkly and bright and fancy and pink. Plain ballet shoes would never do — if they were going to have custom knit ballet slippers, then they would have them in a pink to thrill their hearts. And I began mixing the dyes…

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I emailed Kate and told her my plan, and she wrote straight back and very kindly offered to help me adjust the pattern to suit these much smaller feet. What a lovely thing to do!

So once I’ve done my gauge swatch and worked out some calculations, I will cast on with this wonderful, crazy pink. And then I can’t wait to share with you my new works in progress!

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But shhhh… mind no-one tells the girls, ok?

Pattern Roll-Call: Warm Feet for Cold Days

By Stephanie

There are some designers whom I admire hugely, and some whom I just want to sit and absorb knitting knowledge from, and some whose stars have shot so high into the knitsphere that I’d be awed just to meet them.  But there is only one designer that I genuinely like so much that I want to sit down and a pour a nice cup of tea, and spend half an hour knitting with her each week.  And… I do!

© Brenda Dayne, Used with Permission

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Brenda Dayne produces Cast-On, my absolute favourite knitting podcast and the most relaxing half-hour in my week.  She is (as I was until a couple of years ago) an American expat living in Britain and, in between her interesting and entertaining pieces about knitting and spinning and dyeing, she also paints pictures of her home in west Wales that take me straight there.  Cast-On is an absolute delight.

And even if I weren’t a fan of Brenda’s, I’d want to show you this design for the name alone, but her Brother Amos Hellfire Lace Socks are worth knitting not just because of Brenda, and not just because of the name (Hellfire..? Lace..? How did those two words end up side-by-side?!?) but because it is a gorgeous design.  I love the way the lace flickers up the leg (what better to keep your feet warm as winter sets in?), and I know the stitch pattern would be interesting to knit without being too daunting.

And they’re beautiful, aren’t they?  Just beautiful!

© Brenda Dayne, Used with Permission

These socks call for a yarn that lives up to their fiery name, and I think they’d would really… (ahem!)… glow in the warm colours of Ball of Fire or Sunset Over a Stormy Sea.  Don’t you?

Celeste yarn in Ball of Fire
Celeste yarn in Sunset Over a Stormy Sea

Pattern Roll-Call: Get Ready, Get Set…

By Stephanie

Now, let me just stop here and give you fair warning that I am about to tell you that the holidays are around the corner.

I know, I know.  That last post — the one right there below this one — has jack-o-lanterns in it and I know it feels waaaay too early to be even thinking about breaking out the holiday decorations and baking cookies and wrapping presents and…   But we are a special breed, you and I.  We are fiberistas.  We don’t just rush out to the stores and buy our gifts at the last minute.  We make gifts — each gift unique, each stitch fashioned with love for those people we care about most in the world, and who understand just what a hand-made gift means.

And that kind of gift-giving takes time…  which is why, for the likes of you and me, the holidays really are right around the corner!  So to get your gift-giving ideas flowing over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to share some great patterns for quick holiday gifts.

And let’s start with something from Kate Gilbert, who designed the incredibly popular Clapotis scarf (with 16,395 projects listed on Ravelry!).  But my eye was caught instead by her beautiful Marina Piccola socks.  I just love the way the simple pattern so perfectly evokes ripples across a water’s surface.  And I think it looks like a quick but really interesting knit for holiday gift-giving.

© Kate Gilbert, Used with Permission

You know this pattern would really shine in a rich colourway such as Desert Wine, but I’d love to see these how these socks came out in a more variegated yarn such as DayLilies or Plumberry.  I think the combination could be quite stunning.

Stella Yarn in Desert Wine
Celeste Yarn in DayLilies
Celeste Yarn in Plumberry

Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh My!

By Stephanie

I expect that by the time many of you read this, Halloween will be last night’s old news, but we are still in the midst of Trick-or-Treating — the doorbell is ringing and every time I open the door, I am greeted by fairy princesses, butterflies, kitty-cats, football players, ghosts and zombies.  All of them are filled with joy, holding out their bags in excited anticipation, and enjoying themselves immensely.   This holiday is so much fun!

And when once the doorbell stops ringing, we will sit down with a cup of hot cider and whatever is left of the candy, and I will pull out my knitting.   Perfect.

I hope you get to do the same.  Happy Halloween!