Floral Peony Scarf – Ready to wear!

March 26, 2021 | Valerie Baber Designs

The new Floral Peony Scarf is now available! One of my newest handmade designs just finished with a peony floral accent. Floral Peony scarf in gray and pink with green leaves in hand painted merino wool is READY to SHIP, other colours may be available. See my Etsy store link below for more information or to purchase.

Etsy store: www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com

This design has a wonderful modern style scarf and textured base with floral peony’s adorning this designs adding class and style to any wardrobe. Floral Blossoms finish off the design on the tip of the scarf to add that finishing touch. The blossoms represent new beginnings like the blossoms in spring reminding us of new and beautiful moments to come. A floral accented scarf for winter that can carry you through the cooler days of spring and fall.

On this scarf the peony’s a lovely soft pink and green leaves. TWO BUTTONS ARE ON THE BACK OF THE SCARF TO FASTEN IN PLACE.

The Floral Peony scarf is designed and handmade by myself, Valerie Baber, with high quality yarns. This design is done in a sock weight yarn or fingerling weight yarn to keep it lighter in weight, but still very warm and luxurious to the touch with the merino wool.

Made with hand painted merino wool 80%, nylon 20% (for durability).

All my designs are hand knit and crocheted with great care and durability and can be worn for many years to come. To preserve the yarn and longitivity of wear the design must be hand washed and laid flat to dry.

This style of scarf is great for when you want to add a unique and creative touch to your wardrobe. Adds a stylish essence to whatever you wear.

Other handmade designs that are ready to wear just for you are available on my Etsy store. I only use High Quality Fibres in this Design and always high quality yarns so you can wear them for years to come. Every design is designed and made by myself to ensure excellent quality and a unique style for your wardrobe.

Various crochet pattern, yarn and ready to wear scarves, shawls, hand warmers and more by Valerie Baber Designs are available on my Etsy store: www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com

Various crochet patterns by Valerie Baber Designs are available at:

Etsy store: www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com or Ravelry www.ravelry.com/designers/valerie-baber and Lovecrafts: LoveCrafts

Follow me on my Instagram, Twitter and here on my Blog for the newest patterns, free patterns, weaving adventure, crochet journey and other fiber related items.

Have a fibertastic day!

Architectural Scarf Collection continued…

July 31, 2014 | Valerie Baber Designs

Here are some of the new pieces I have added to my Architectural Collection for Fall 2014. My inspiration continues to evolve with ideas for more designs. Stay tuned for more to come.

PLEASE NOTE: I HAVE RECENTLY CHANGED MY ETSY STORE TO: http://www.valeriebaberdesigns.com so it cooresponds with my website and business name.

I continue to add new designs to my Etsy store and my website at http://www.vbaberdesigns.com

For more information about these designs see my Etsy store link and check out the listings there.

Have a wonderful week. Get out and enjoy nature today.

Thinking of Spring

March 18, 2014 | Valerie Baber Designs

As snow still covers the ground I am again warming up with the thoughts of the coming Spring. Dreaming of the new leaves budding from the trees and flowers all around colouring our gardens to a bright and wonderful view. I was inspired by the beautiful colours of various gardens I have seen in past seasons with bright bold colours mixing together to form the perfect colour collections. The Abstract Vines scarves and the Cotton Infinity scarves are some of my newest designs reminiscent of the colours of Spring and Summer Gardens. Here are a few of the colours I have added to this collection.

The Abstract Vines and Cotton Infinity Scarf are made with a luxuriously soft cotton in a worsted weight with the Abstract Vines Scarf mixed with a hand painted organic cotton. The Abstract Vines scarves have “leaves” dancing around the vines in various colours depending on the scarf. You can mix and match the different scarves to suit your colour choice and style. Other colours are available soon. To finish off the design I will be adding hand warmers that are on a lovely crochet base with a “garden lattice” feel and a floral touch to the design. You can view more information and purchase them here at www.intricateknits.etsy.com

These pieces can be done in merino wool as well and I will likely be adding them to the collection at a later date. For now I want to relish in the thoughts of Spring and Summer and the colourful warm days ahead.

Have yourself a wonderful week and Spring Forward to warmer weather!

Floral Twist Accent Scarf…dreaming of the warm days of Spring!

February 27, 2014 | Valerie Baber Designs

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.

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/180894945/floral-twist-accent-scarf-spring-and

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!

Hand Painted Garden

January 30, 2014 | Valerie Baber Designs

The Hand Painted Garden scarf is another version of my Hand Spun Garden. I wanted to do a different combination of yarns using only hand painted yarns on this design. The blue grey background is one of my favourite colours in this hand painted merino wool. It is reminiscent of the midnight sky with some muted flowers light by the moonlight strewn around the garden path. This is one of my newest designs that will be available in other colours or an all ivory one for the classic touch.

I will be adding a new scarf collection soon…the Contempo Scarf Collection. You can view more pictures and information about this scarf on the link below:

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/177687093/hand-painted-garden-scarf-in-soft-bulky?ref=shop_home_active_1

I hope today finds you with great inspiration to try something new. Have a great one!

SPRING FORWARD…thinking of Spring

January 29, 2014January 29, 2014 | Valerie Baber Designs

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.

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

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!

Happy Belated New Years!!

January 8, 2014 | Valerie Baber Designs

Happy belated New Years to all of you. Had a wonderful Christmas and New Years with a house full of family. Great times! Now I must get back to work playing with yarn (I know, it’s a hard, hard job). 🙂

This year, to celebrate New Year and start off on the right foot, I decided that I would make myself the first scarf of the year. Kind of a late Christmas present. I usually don’t have time or take the time to make myself my own designs, not sure why, perhaps I just run out of time. I find when I am working on something new I decide I will want one of the newest styles instead, yet somehow I keep forgetting to make myself one. None the less I controlled my desire for my next design dancing around in my head and picked the Rose Onie Bulky X-Long scarf in a lovely Grey Blue Hand Painted Merino Wool by Malabrigo Yarns. This is done in their Mecha yarn, new this year done in absolutely lovely colour ways and extremely soft. The best part was finishing the scarf on New Years day! Great way to start a new year! I am currently working on some hand warmers for myself to match. Below are a few other colours also available in this cozy warm scarf.

I have been busy working on some new designs for the New Year. Some will have “One of a Kind” hand spun fibres and other unique yarns. I love seeing what I can design with specialty yarns, they are a great starting point for something completely unique. I am looking forward to getting back into more pattern writing later on this year so keep an eye on my blog to see what I design for this end of my work. I will continue to offer some free patterns to compliment my blog as well this year.

I love a new year, it is the perfect time to reflect on the last year and all you did and accomplished as well look forward to a new year of exciting adventures to come. Have a wonderful start to your New Year!!