Saltwater Gifts is the third book in the Saltwater Knits series written by Christine LeGrow and Shirley A. Scott. Like the first two books, Saltwater Mittens and Saltwater Classics, this book is grounded in Newfoundland tradition and includes many quotes, stories, and beautiful photography.
The story of this pattern starts back in 2008 when Elizabeth and I, along with our sister Margaret, decided that we wanted to make a blanket for our parents as a gift for their 25th wedding anniversary. Elizabeth suggested we base our blanket design on the traditional Attic Windows quilting pattern, and she came up with a simple technique to knit the squares.
We wanted to share the basic technique for the Attic Windows squares, because it's so adaptable, and so much fun to play with! So, we decided to create a free "recipe" version of the pattern, that shares the basic technique as well as a step-by-step guide on planning your Attic Windows project.
It's only the middle of July, and we've already had some significant heat waves here in Montreal this year, so I've been swapping out my normal afternoon pick-me-up of a hot black tea for iced tea instead. I've recently discovered this simple method for making my iced tea using green tea instead of black and I've been making it so often that I thought I should share the recipe
It's that time of year again! Our 2020 batch of Norbouillet fleece is already at the mill, ready to be custom-spun into this year's batch of our locally-sourced, 100% Canadian yarns.
This year as we were setting up pre-orders we took some time to look through all the beautiful projects that our customers have made with these yarns over the past few years, and we were inspired to share a few of our favourites here. Thank you so much to everyone who gave us permission to share your photos!
It's been over two months now since we had to temporarily shut down the dye studio to wait out COVID-19. We've been able to have limited access to the studio again for the past few weeks, and I'm happy to be back! But last month when I still didn't have access I was itching to play with colour again, and realized that in amongst all the yarn and other products that I'd hauled home back in March, I had some indigo dye kits. I didn't have any of my other dyeing equipment with me, but indigo doesn't require heat or mordanting to set, so it was the perfect solution for me to scratch that dyeing itch!
Lanark gloves (today's featured pattern in our 100 Days of Patterns project) are one of my design contributions to our Cloudy Day Collection, published way back in 2012. They're knit in our Messa di Voce fingering-weight superwash merino, in the Chimney Smoke colourway.
As part of our 100 days of patterns retrospective, we'll be sharing some project galleries featuring some favourite projects made from our patterns. Cranberry Biscotti (a free sock pattern) is my design with the most projects on Ravelry. I'm sharing a few of my favourites here, but do check out the project pages on Ravelry to see many, many more beautiful projects.
Since we’re still on a shipping hiatus for the time being, we thought it would be a good time to do a retrospective of our Sweet Paprika patterns. We’ve been publishing our own designs and those of other talented designers for over 13 years now, and have 99 patterns available here on our website and on Ravelry! We decided to call this project 100 Days of Patterns though, since we’re pretty sure we’ll have at least one new pattern released by the time we get through them all...
As hand-dyers who love playing with colour, it's only natural that we would love dyeing eggs as well as yarn. I've been exploring using natural dyes for Easter eggs for several years and after much trial and error, I've put together some instructions and tips for you.
I've been working on recipes for some new colours to add to our yarn lines over the winter months, many of them inspired by thoughts of spring. We had intended to launch these at Knit City this weekend, but since that's been postponed I decided to take a moment to introduce you to them here on our blog instead!
Please note: quantities of these colours are limited right now, as we don't currently have access to our dye studio due to the COVID-19 situation. We will be dyeing more as soon as we are able to get back to work.
Sweet Paprika Designs propose des matériaux de haute qualité pour les tricoteurs et crocheteurs, en mettant l’accent sur des produits locaux et durables. Les copropriétaires (et soeurs) Debbie et Elizabeth créent leurs propres laines teintes à la main, ensemble prêt-à-tricoter et patrons dans leur atelier de teinture à Montréal et organisent des événements de tricot et de teinture dans la communauté.