Fabulous Floral scarves, hand warmers, hats, ear warmers and more. I have been busy designing new pieces to various collections including various Floral Peony styles shown here http://www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com and http://www.valeriebaberdesign.com Check out both of my sites for the latest design as I will continue to add new ones weekly. Some of my other designs are ready to ship and some can be custom ordered with a variety of colours so check each listing you like to see on the last picture what colours you can do order them in. These are some of the various design styles and colours available with a Peony floral touch, more colours are available than shown.
Peony Onie scarf
Peony hat and hand warmers
Peony scarf
Peony scarf
Peony hat, scarf, hand warmers
peony scarf
Floral Freize Peony scarf
Floral Freize Peony scarf
Floral Freize Peony scarf
Peony collection
Peony onie scarf
These are some of the new Peony floral scarves available this fall. There are many different styles to choose from to suit your style. I have also added many new one of a kind pieces recently to http://www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com with hand painted merino wool and hand spun wool. Have a wonderful day and be inspired to try something new today.
The Floral Pussy Willow Scarf is inspired by the soft colours and texture of pussy willows with a floral touch. This design is a 2 scarf combination with the base of the scarf the Classic Touch scarf with the leaf frieze vine accent scarf and a floral pussy willow brooch. Available in various colours as well can be ordered in brighter colours too. You can wear this design in various ways as shown or use the accent scarf and brooch on other items in your wardrobe. Hand warmers shown are the Classic Essence hand warmers.
Floral Pussy Willow Scarf
Floral Pussy Willow Scarf
This design is a classic and elegant addition to your unique style with a softness like pussy willows in colour and texture. The flower centre has 5 pussy willows finishing it off and made with kid mohair, silk and merino wool. The entire piece is made with beautiful yarns from http://www.sweetgeorgiayarns.com
Also available is the Floral Rose scarf in a similar look to this one where the rose is the centre of the flower. In various colours shown here or order in a brighter colour too.
More Architectural Inspiration scarves with a floral stone tracery feel. All of these designs are available for order at http://www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com This group of scarves new this season were inspired once again by the many Gothic Cathedrals of the past especially the Milan Cathedral. This amazing building was designed and built by many architects, artists, craftsmen and so many more. It is one of the most decorated Gothic Cathedrals that took over 200 years to build. The various architects used a lot of floral inspiration in their stone tracery throughout the Milan Cathedral as shown below.
Milan Cathedral, Italy
Crockets and stone tracery
Floral stone tracery accents
Floral stained glass window
The various floral accents on the Floral Tracery Gothic Cathedral Inspired scarves were inspired by the Milan Cathedral and other Gothic Cathedrals of the past. As mentioned in my previous blogs I will be restarting my Architectural project as you can see why. There is so much inspiration that I felt I needed to go another direction and begin my project with various Architectural buildings to pull my inspiration from. I will be adding these designs to my work soon for Fall and Winter 2015/16.
It amazes me the incredible amount of work that has gone into these beautiful buildings. I am awed at their creativity and design as each Gothic Cathedral stands alone in unique stature expressing the Architect, Artist and Craftsmen ideas and design skills that have stood for many years in their beautiful strength. The Gothic Architecture era had a huge impact on how we design and build today.
Check my website soon for dates I am at the local St. Albert Farmers Market in the fall as well some of my work will be at another booth by the library at the Wiggles and Giggles booth. Website: www.vbaberdesigns.com
I will be at the ArtWalk Street Party June 4th in St. Albert, Alberta so pop by for this great event with local Artist, buskers, music and more. This Street Party is the kick off the St. Albert ArtWalk for 2015. I will have a collection of some of my newest designs and the classics such as the Rose Onie Scarf. Pop by for a great evening perfect for starting off your Summer fun!
The Floral Twist Accent scarf…dreaming of the warm day of Spring coming our way, eventually! It is so very cold here today and for the next few days and I couldn’t help but look forward to the warmer days of Spring. Seems to be such a long winter this year and I am impatiently waiting for warmer days of Spring and Summer. I love the look of Winter, but not the cold! I have become a Winter wimp!
To break out for a moment of warm relief this week I was busy designing a nice light acceent scarf that I could wear during these cold days to warm my thoughts of the coming Spring. I started with designing a new base for my scarf. I wanted something that looked like it was twisting, but could lie flat. This gives the essence of a vine twisting and turning up the lattice, in this case your neckline, with the leaves adding the movement and twists along the way. I used a beautiful hand painted merino wool of blues, greens, purples an hints of yellow. If you look closely at the bark on trees, vines or other greenery you see many different colours that combined. I love using hand painted yarns as they add a special unique touch to each piece I make as they are never the same from skein to skein.
The Floral Twist accent scarf can be worn in many different ways and be used to dress up your favourite T shirt, sweater, shirt, or jacket. A touch of bling in the glass button adorns each flower. Various purples were used to make the 3 different flowers on this design. There will be a cotton version as well in neutrals and bright and bolds to warm the day.
Warm up your day and think of the coming Spring! Have a great one!
Spring Forward…thinking of Spring today as the snow is falling outside my window making a new blanket of white. We have been very lucky these past few weeks with a wonderful warm spell that melted a portion of the snow we have been receiving since the end of October. Yes, winter starts early here some years and the past few years have been very snowy to boot. Surrounded by the lovely warm weather these past weeks put me in the mood for some Spring weather and gardening. The Floral Elegance scarf is a “new” version of my original scarf that brought me back into the knitting, crochet and designing world. The picture below is one of the original styles I designed when my sister, Cheryl, asked me to design some scarves for her to sell.
Original Floral Elegance Scarf
Off I went to try some of the new and exciting techniques I learned while taking many wonderful courses at www.rivercityyarns.com. One of my amazing customers wanted something different from what I was currently designing with flowers on a green base for the scarf. I immediately thought of my first set of scarf designs under Valerie Baber Designs. I have been wanting to revamp them a bit and change the overall design to a more 3D effect and add some fingerless gloves to compliment the designs. This scarf was inspired by various people in my life; my sister, River City Yarns and a wonderful customer. It amazes me how different things and people can inspire your life daily. You can link to this design on my Esty site, Intricate Knits at https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/177538387/floral-elegance-scarf-in-green-with? and https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/177535174/floral-elegance-fingerless-gloves-green?ref=listing-shop-header-1
Floral Elegance scarf & Hand Warmers
Floral Elegance Scarf & Hand Warmers
Floral Elegance Scarf
Floral Elegance Scarf
Floral Elegance scarf
Floral Elegance Scarf
Floral Elegance Hand warmer
Floral Elegance Hand Warmer
A bit of background into my past designing. I previously designed various children’s hats, sweaters and other items under my business Hey, Diddle Diddle Knitwear. Back in the day when my kids were babies and my greatest inspiration then and now in my life. While designing finished garments and progressing into pattern writing and design I was inflicted with a serious hand injury that took over a year to mend. During this time I realized I needed a change in what I was creating and went back to school to finish my Interior Decorating and continued to work on achieving my Interior Design. This duration was about 6 years and though I knit like a race horse running down the track in my Hey, Diddle Diddle days, I barely picked up a knitting needle at all. This was very strange to me as it had been such a big part of my life for 10 years prior. I assume it was that my creativity was elsewhere in my school and trying out new arts such as Stained Glass, Mosaic Tiling and more. Ok, I said this would be short…oops.
During the middle of my Interior Design program I had a serious back injury that made it impossible to finish my goals. I was devastated, I had been working on school in this direction for 6 years at that point. In sharing this background about my designing ventures I wanted to make a point about how life sometimes gives you moments of “pain” and anguish, but it can lead you down a path you never thought of going in the first place. When you look back you see how it was exactly how things were to be and without these moments in life you wouldn’t be who you are today.
The strange part for me was an injury took me out of designing with yarn and an injury put me back into designing with fibre. I look back and see how all of the Hey, Diddle Diddle days, Interior Decorating School, Interior Design School though very different actually made it possible for me to design today with Valerie Baber Designs and Intricate knits. Without all of these twists and turns I wouldn’t be able to accomplish what I do today.
Long story short you never know where life will take you and sometimes the worst times end up being the most important times in your life as they guide you to where and who you should be. I wanted to encourage those who needed a moment to see that sometimes when life gives you rotten lemons, pick your self up (or your knitting or crochet needles) and keep yourself going forward. You never know what is around the next corner!! My life took a complete turn around! When things are tough don’t look back to see where you were, look forward so you can see what’s up ahead.
I am very thankful for all the people in my life who inspire and push me forward when I am trying to look back. There are many others who have guided and helped me along this path including my other sister, Laureen, the Alberta Craft Council http://www.albertacraft.ab.ca/ and the Art Gallery of St. Albert http://artgalleryofstalbert.ca/ to name a few. Spring is a new start to the earth and life around it. A perfect time to try something new and look at life in a new perspective. I am looking forward to Spring…are you? Have an inspired day!
