This is the fifth year that Debbie and I have been involved in the Indie Design Gift-along on Ravelry as both designers and participants. It's a fun event and it’s a chance for us to take a little vacation from designing ourselves, support our fellow designers by working from their patterns, make connections with knitters and crocheters around the world, and maybe finish off a gift or two or three.
November can be a challenging month for those of us dealing with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Several years ago my sister Margaret and I came up with a little activity to get us through the month of November and we decided to repeat the project this year. We each came up with 15 actions to make our day more fun.
I really love baking bread at home, and I actually rarely buy any bread products except bagels (and croissants when I'm feeling indulgent). But with the crazy heat we had all summer I got out of the habit of baking, and until last week I hadn't made bread since last spring. I like using the method from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day cookbook. In reality it does take a few more than five minutes, but once you've got a routine going and have the dough stored in your fridge it really is pretty easy to whip up a fresh loaf whenever you feel like it.
I've spent the past week sketching and swatching many, many cable patterns for a new design I'm working on. I love this part of the design process and usually have way more ideas than I can fit in one project, so I often end up with tons of swatches.
Our bulky-weight Presto yarn is a great choice for a quick and gratifying fall project, and we're really excited to announce the publication of four new patterns using this yarn.
We sent a skein of Presto each to three different indie designers at the beginning of the summer, and they've all come up with great ways to use this soft and squishy yarn. In fact, we were so inspired by their patterns that Elizabeth decided to add a design of her own to the collection!
One of the best parts of living in our new neighbourhood is being close the Jean-Talon Market, my favourite market in Montreal. I've been taking full advantage of it and going about once a week or so to pick up fruits and veggies, much of it for freezing and canning for the winter.
For the past few months we've been using this blog to celebrate our accomplishments, both big and small, and we want to celebrate your accomplishments too! And because we love to send special packages in the mail, we'll be giving away a prize. Please see the end of this post for all the details.
This summer has been very full, mostly of good things, but sometimes it gets a bit hard to keep up. So this week I've tried to focus on some accomplishments that are about taking care of myself, and allowing myself time to play.
I love to travel. And it's been several years since I've been outside of Canada, so this year I was definitely getting itchy feet; I was ready to go on an adventure. Where to? My cousin has been living in Hong Kong for the past couple of years, so when she suggest we come to visit her, I jumped at the chance!
I finished a spinning project! You may remember from this postback in June that I had some singles ready for plying. Well, I got half a bobbin of those done, and then got distracted again by other projects, and then went away on vacation... I finally got back to it when I got home in mid-July, and it took me a couple of spinning sessions, but I've now got a nice plump skein of about 340 yds of sport-ish weight yarn - maybe closer to a light DK.
It seems a little crazy that it was almost a month ago now that my boyfriend and I set out for our summer vacation! We left by train to Halifax at the end of June and spent a very full ten days visiting friends and family, and exploring the province in our trusty little Prius borrowed fromCarshare Atlantic. I'm not the best travel photographer, as my tendency is to leave the camera behind in favour of just relaxing and enjoying the moment, but I did manage to remember to snap a few photos here and there!
Sweet Paprika Designs offers high-quality materials for knitters and crocheters, with a focus on locally-sourced and sustainable products. Co-owners (and sisters) Debbie and Elizabeth create their own hand-dyed yarns, knitting kits and patterns in their Montreal dye studio and organize knitting and dyeing events in the community.