Working with my hands is joyful and meditative. I find pleasure in the chance to choose high quality raw materials, focus on patterns and stitches, incorporate intricate design elements, and make something unique or personalized. If I’m wound up in worry, picking up my crochet hook or sewing needle helps put life into perspective, cuts …
Author Archives: tracyj
Tweed
Whether it be outerwear, cardigans or blankets, tweed garments are rustic, durable, and warm. Traditionally, sheep shorn for the first time provide the finest and softest fibres that are the building blocks of tweed yarns and fabrics. The name “tweed” comes from the River Tweed that runs along the Scottish Borders Region. Tweed was developed …
Peach Fuzz, Pantone Colour of 2024
Pantone provides a library of colour standards. It is used globally in graphic and multimedia design and the textile, fashion, interior design and home industries. The Pantone Color Institute was established to provide designers and brands with colour consulting and trend forecasting. The first ever colour of the year was Cerulean in 1999. A quarter …
Wool Sensitivity and Warmth
“I can’t wear wool next to my skin. It’s too itchy! I want to keep my head warm on freezing winter days. What can I do?” A microscope gives us some clues. If you look at sheep wool under a microscope, you can see the fibres have a scaled surface. Sheep also secrete lanolin through …
Winter Sale
30% off Hats by Tracy J! It’s time to refresh my collection and make room on the shelf for new hats. In the retail industry, the hats on sale may be considered “dusty inventory”, but there’s nothing dusty in the classic cloches, slouchy beanies, and reversible summer bucket hats that need a head to love. …
What to do with Leftover Yarn?
After many crocheted hats, a stash of leftover yarn remains in my storage cupboard. While I come from a “waste not, want not” upbringing, I also do not have limitless closet space and love to clear clutter. What to do with all the unused yarn? In the past, I have used yarn scraps to make …
Wesbrook Village Tapestry’s Holiday Market
Please come to the Wesbrook Village Holiday Market at UBC. Hats by Tracy J will be there, along with other vendors selling unique gifts, crafts and treats. Live music will be performed by the Willy Blizzard Duo. When? Thursday, December 14, 2023, 2-4 PM Where? Tapestry at Wesbrook Village, 3338 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC
Jazz up with Colour
Where I live, I see fall and winter outerwear in black, grey and khaki. It’s neutral and goes with everything, but admittedly a bit drab. I was delighted to have so many customers at the Dunbar Holiday Craft Fair try on and purchase hats of different hues. They looked fabulous with colour topping their heads …
Dunbar Holiday Craft Fair
I’d be so happy to meet you at the 2023 Dunbar Holiday Craft Fair. The event features some of the best local artisans and their wares. Look for Hats by Tracy J at Table #62 in the Gym at Dunbar Community Centre, 4747 Dunbar Street in Vancouver on Saturday, November 23rd. Please come by to …
Hats made with Variegated Wool
While I was in Belfast, Prince Edward Island, I purchased some locally sourced hand-dyed worsted wool. I selected three different colourways—Stones, Gale and Forget-Me-Nots–aptly named for their Maritime roots. I wanted to experiment with these variegated wools to determine which crochet stitches and which hat patterns would show them off best. Variegated yarns are created by …
Hats by Tracy J 