When Becca met Julie (Knitted Bliss)

Have you ever met an online pal IRL?

When the lovely Julie from Knitted Bliss posted on Instagram that she was in Bristol this summer, I said a quick hello, which resulted in a lunch hour meet-up full of stitchy chat. How often does one of your fave knit bloggers from Canada visit your city, right? It had to be done.

We talked yarn, blogging, Netflix and multitasking over hot bowls of pho, before a quick pit stop in the Simply Crochet/ Simply Knitting office to say hi to the team.  Julie was rocking her fresh-off-the-needles Golden Hour jumper (SO pretty) and sent me these pics so I could share a bit of our conversation with you. Thanks Julie! Be sure to check out her Knitted Bliss blog to see what she's been working on lately.

What are you making right now?

I'm knitting two tops at the moment, Rie (from Knitpicks) and Gesture Sweater (from We Are Knitters). They are both completely different, but I'm loving everything about them! Rie is very much outside what I typically knit or wear, so it's a bit more of an experimental knit for me. The Gesture Sweater is something I adore wearing- toasty warm cabled sweaters. I feel like it's going to be my favourite fall sweater. 

Have you bought any yarn on your England trip?

I did! I tried to keep it really manageable, I bought a skein of Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles in 'Boombox', which my daughter picked out. She wants me to knit her a little scarf. And I bought two skeins of of La Bien Aimee in 'Interstellar'. Not sure what I'm going to knit with those, but definitely something for myself. 

What's been inspiring you at the moment?

The intricacy of the colour grey has been inspiring me recently. It is quickly becoming my favourite colour, because it usually has so much range and depth. Very rare to see a flat grey, and I find that quite interesting. Plus, it goes with pretty much everything, making it such an easy to wear neutral. I've been thinking a lot of what it takes to have handknit classics in one's wardrobe, and colour choice is paramount. 

Any new designs coming up?

I have a new design coming in a future installation of Knitty.com, and I'm working on a couple of things that are still hush- hush. 

Current guilty pleasure (food, yarn or otherwise)?

When in England, gooseberry yogurt. You can't get that in Canada. When in Canada, Netflix is my guilty pleasure. 

Any favourite Bath/ Bristol treasures?

Photographs are my favourite treasures, the way they so perfectly conjure up a fragment of the day. But I also love the little Christmas store in Bath, and letting Lila pick out a new Christmas ornament for the tree. And in Bristol, I love combing the bookshelves of every book store I come across. I like finding new book by authors I haven't heard of before.