Week 6 | Knitting

Posted: 22/04/2010 | Author: soak | Filed under: Craft, Knitting, Uncategorized | Tags: Jacqueline Sava, Knitting | Leave a comment

Author: Jacqueline

Sincerely sorry for not posting an update last week. I was, on Thursday, coming back from Las Vegas, on the red eye, via Chicago. Fear not, I was thinking of you, and knitting.

My lesson from knitting at O’Hare airport from 5-8am after staying up all night? Well, keep it simple, or just don’t do it at all. I highly recommend against attempting ‘a plaited cable pattern that resembles an oscillating line’ while drinking a latte and pretending you are not tired. Even if it means you can’t continue until you are home, don’t do it. When I realized I had twisted the wrong way, I was well into the next cable, an hour and a half (plus two days and some sleep) later on a Saturday afternoon.

Since I have the universe on my side, the incorrect twist isn’t very noticeable. Plus, it’s exactly in the centre of the wrap, almost like on purpose. I’m a quilter at heart, as you may know, so I believe in the Amish quilting myth of ‘one deliberate flaw’. I believe that a single flaw should accompany every hand-crafted item. It shows that not only was the item made by hand, but also with love. Most of the time, the flaw comes after a sleepless night, or pattern reading error (not on purpose). In my opinion that only reinforces the fact that when we are passionate about something, we sometimes work into the wee hours, past the point of exhaustion, out of love.

I have fallen in love with my green wrap, and will wear it with pride at TNNA in June. I’m certain it will be too warm for wool, but that won’t stop me.

101 things to do with Soak | 011 Removing Paint from brushes

Posted: 20/04/2010 | Author: soak | Filed under: Craft, Design, Uncategorized, Uses for Soak | Tags: 101, hand washing, paint brushes, soak wash, soakwash, wash | Leave a comment

Author: Ngoc

Paint + rollers + brushes = An easy way to refresh and update a room. Nothing changes a room as fast as a new coat of paint. Now add Soak to the equation for a quick painless cleanup.

If you are anything like me, then you’re guilty of abandoning your paint covered brushes as soon as the first coat is done, to sit, relax and reward yourself with a drink. This results in many curses the next day when you go to paint your second coat, only to find the rollers and brushes completed caked in dry paint due to your laziness the day before. 10 minutes will then be spent trying to remove the dried paint before giving up and making a trip to the hardware store to pick up another set. To avoid this frustration and extra cost, I’ve vowed to take a page from Jacqueline’s book and become a diligent brush washer.

Jacqueline is in the midst of renovating her apartment one room at a time. She is no stranger to primer, paint, rollers and brushes. She’s taken photos to show us all how painless and easy it is to wash your brushes with Soak as soon as you are done using them.

Pour a little soak on the brush and swish it around your hand to remove most of the paint.

Don’t forget to wash between the bristles.

As good as new and ready to tackle on another day of painting.

Week 4 | Simple tips for wellness while you knit.

Posted: 08/04/2010 | Author: soak | Filed under: Craft, Knitting, Uncategorized | Tags: Jacqueline Sava, Knitting, yoga | Leave a comment

Author: Jacqueline

I always appreciate a good Pilates class, row or workout. Recently I’ve come to covet my Pilates class, focusing on my arms and shoulders, post-knitting.

Rather than sharing the exercises and stretches I have developed myself at home (which are modeled after my kitties and their stretches), I consulted Petra, my Pilates instructor and the owner of Sphinx Pilates in Toronto. She gave me some simple tips to remember while knitting.

Petra is committed to helping her clients access their greatest potential through Pilates. She enjoys sharing teachings that have enriched her own life.

It is worth noting that I wasn’t the only closet knitter experiencing arm fatigue in the class. Once we started on the subject, others perked up with similar strains and aches as I am experiencing. These tips are also useful if you sit at a computer for an extended period of time. Or, say, if you sit at a computer during the day, then go home and knit as well! Enjoy.

Three simple tips for wellness while you knit:

Drop Your Elbows
Get up and Stretch
Massage those Hands!

1. Are you tensing up through your shoulders?

Just let your elbows be heavy (* this is key*), notice the freedom through your neck.

2. Get up and stretch or stretch sitting…reach your arms up wide to the ceiling and look up too…every 20min

3. Your hands are working hard in a repetitive movement – show them some appreciation once you’re done.

Use a small ball (you can buy it at a dollar store) and roll it in between your hands. Get it into the webbing of your hands. Wellness Made Simple!

I’m off on a tradeshow trip this weekend. I’ll be taking my knitting on board! I’ll be sure to take these stretch tips with me. I have a small ball (as described above- a super ball, from the Dollar Store). I’ll be doing extra stretches on the plane, as well as rolling out my hands. I also roll out my feet, but that’s another story.

Week 3 | Knitting

Posted: 01/04/2010 | Author: soak | Filed under: Craft, Design, Knitting, Uncategorized | Tags: Jacqueline Sava, Knitting | Leave a comment

Author: Jacqueline

I’m through the first skein, two to go; one third done, well on my way. I’ve used almost all the needles I bought, consulted www.knittinghelp.com once and have caught on to the seed stitch pattern so I don’t have to keep such intense notes.

JacqWrap3

My favorite comments over the past few weeks have been about the inconsistency between the complexity of the pattern and my somewhat basic hand-knitting skills. While I myself am impressed with the way this wrap is developing, it is worth noting that I do have a strong background in knitting, machine knitting.

Many moons ago I took machine knitting while in college at Rhode Island School of Design. I was in love after the first class. After graduation my passion for knitting turned into Jacq’s-Hats, an award winning knit accessories company. We designed and sold our knits to retailers (much like Soak, only on a smaller scale). We developed a local network of machine knitters for production and sourced yarn internationally. We also participated in the One of a Kind Show in Toronto, a huge craft retail event (which incidentally, is on this weekend, if you are local).

The photos are a bit circa 1999, but then again, that’s when they were taken.

Our customers often ask us how they can best take care of our wool hats, sweaters and scarves. When we started, we recommended other wool washes, or baby shampoo. They worked okay, but had overpowering fragrances that were kind of dated. Our customers have a modern take on life, so we decided to offer them a modern approach to fiber care, too. We developed a better, no-rinse wash solution that works with our stuff – and with anything else people care about enough to hand wash. That’s essentially how Soak was born. The rest, as they say, is history.

This year, we’re bringing back our knits. I’m designing again. My first group of patterns goes with our latest Soak fragrance, Unleash, inspired by Ravelry. We’ve designed (based on our original knits of course!) a set, hat, mitts and scarf, with Louet Gems yarns in custom Ravelry inspired colors.

You can purchase the patterns here. You can purchase the yarns or kits (Soak, pattern and yarn) here.

Ask for them at your local yarn shop. We’re working on our distribution. If you are a local yarn shop, contact us to place your order. They’ll be appearing in magazines and shops for fall knitting and are already all the rage on Ravelry.com.

This is the colour range, with fun Ravelry inspired names.

The knitting needles are happy to have some consistent attention. (machine or otherwise). They’ve long been overshadowed by work, life and quilting. My arms are starting to get a regular workout… my shoulders too. My hands finally remember what to do on their own (thank goodness).

Next week, knitting posture and maybe some stretches too.

It’s Friday and I’m bagged. Week 1: A brief history.

Posted: 22/01/2010 | Author: soak | Filed under: Craft, Design, Travel | Tags: bags, Jacqueline Sava | Leave a comment

Author: Jacqueline
Grab a coffee or tea and join us each Friday to learn how these Soak worthy bags came to be. Are you bagged? Send us your favorite bag. If we feature it here, we’ll send you a Soak gift pack, in a pretty bag, of course!

When I was little, my mother travelled the globe. She was a fashion designer. She frequented New York and Los Angeles, San Francisco and Montreal. She bought fabric in Asia, shopped the stores of Paris and London and visited suppliers world-wide. She also collected shopping bags from boutiques near and far. Many moons ago, she used them to wallpaper the basement of the house where we lived. Paper bags and a staple gun. History in the making.

She loved the prints, the colours, the sayings and, I’m certain, the shopping that went along with them. Many bags are from boutiques that no longer exist, or stores that have changed their name, logo and image, time and time again. Did you know that Banana Republic used to be a ‘Travel & Safari Clothing Company’? (I miss those old Banana Republic t-shirts with lions and tigers and bears, oh my!) Club Monaco is a great Canadian brand of the past. Roots is still around with its iconic beaver et al. Remember Ken Done with those great water colours and prints?

I guess that’s where my fascination for bags began. Where we live, in the city of Toronto, Canada, there’s a new bylaw that states that retailers must now charge a minimum of $.05 for a plastic bag. This trend towards re-usable bags has created a larger than life collection of brilliant bags at our office. We now travel the globe, attending trade shows, visiting customers and of course, shopping. While our bag collection is often used for carrying Soak to and from the office, some of our bags are becoming icons in their own ways.Each Friday we’re going to share part of our bag collection with you. You’ll learn about bags from our distributors, Soak retailers, events we’ve sponsored and places we’ve been. We’ll include fascinating facts, merchandising tips and whatever else we find in the bag. So sit down, grab a coffee or tea and join us each Friday to learn how these bags came to live at our office.