Visitors in the garden

 Ambah O'Brien has a new pattern. This is the Zea Wrap.

Enjoy knitting Zea Wrap, a mosaic and slip stitch knitting extravaganza. It is designed to be knit with ten mini skeins and a contrasting colour. You are only limited by your imagination; use a fade set, create a rainbow, gather up all those cherished leftovers or knit yourself a sophisticated two colour version. Test your colour ideas with the handy colour-in schematic. Each stitch will be a fun adventure as you watch the pattern emerge, resulting in a stunning wrap you’ll wear with pride.Pattern includes both charted and written instructions for the mosaic sections.

Fingering weight 
MC: 800 yd/732 m 
CC: Either 800 yd/732 m or a ten-colour mini set, each skein consisting of 80 yd/74 m.

Colours in gradient sets will be referred to as CC1 through CC10.

Here is Clue #2 of Perfect Blend. I'm on colour four and from here I will do colour three, two and one. Then this clue is finished. I should have this finished in time for the next clue on Monday.

I've talked about the deer that like to hang out in my garden. I haven't seen any signs of them lately but there was another friend yesterday. On two different occasions I saw a baby skunk.

You can see a little black tail in the middle of the picture behind the parking curb. I didn't want to get too close. According to my dad (and everyone knows that their dad is right) a skunk makes a great pet. Yes, he did say that you need to have the skunk fixed so that it doesn't spray. Now Beth wants to find it and make it a pet for their office. Imagine someone walking through the front door and being greeted by a skunk.

Arranmore Light

It is going to be a busy fall in the store with a lot of new yarn.

Here are better photos of the new colours of Arranmore Light that are coming in August. We used Arranmore Light to make the Library Vest and love the yarn.

Inspired by the breathtaking scenery of Ireland’s Northern Headlands, Arranmore Light yarn is spun in a mill that traces its roots to the homespun tweed industry of 19th century County Donegal. A finer weight than the popular Arranmore, Arranmore Light blends cashmere and silk with a fine merino wool to create an authentic tweed yarn of the finest quality. With a colour palette reminiscent of the wild Irish coastlands, Arranmore Light was designed for makers appreciating the best of luxury and tradition.

There is a new fingering weight yarn on the way from Erika Knight called Wool Local.

An intimate blend of pure British Bluefaced Leicester and fine Masham

The catalyst for creating my own yarn collection was to support the British heritage of textile mills and to promote native sheep breeds.

From fleece to finished yarn in less than 50 miles, Wool Local is both authentically British and environmentally sustainable. Starting at the British wool auction in Bradford, the wool is scoured, combed, spun, dyed, steamed and hanked in the county of Yorkshire.

An intimate blend of luxurious Bluefaced Leicester and hardwearing Masham, in a fine 4ply weight, this is a truly local wool, with its roots in the heartland of British textile manufacturing.

Made in England

100g hank

100% British wool

approx. 450m/492yds

28 sts & 36 rows = 10cm/4in

needles 3.25mm/US 3

There are six colours and the yarn is perfect for shawls and sweaters. And the news gets even better - the yarn is $22.50 a skein.

An edge to edge cardigan, with longer back featuring asymmetrical cable patterns and long open side vents. The slim sleeves feature a long rib cuff and central diamond pattern, and the fronts have a decorative cable braid and rib bands, which are picked up after seaming and knitted in K2, P2 rib. 

This is Brodrick. The cardigan takes 3-5 skeins.

I was up at 5am to watch The Open. I wanted to knit but that isn't the hour to be knitting on something that requires counting and fancy stitches. I finished a Log Cabin square and cast on another. Tonight I hope to work on Perfect Blend. My first clue is finished and it's time to start the next one.

Rearranging Again

The Dartmouth Poncho is new from Cascade Yarns and is knit in Cascade 220 Superwash Merino.
Download the free pattern designed by Melissa Leapman.

There are three sizes available and you need 7-9 balls.

220 Superwash^® Merino is a new addition to our 220 Superwash^® collection. 220 Superwash^® Merino is similar in gauge and yardage to our classic 220 Superwash^® but with the softness of merino. Use this total easy care yarn for adult and child garments and accessories that need that extra touch of softness.

Alex and Lynn did some rearranging this afternoon. Mrs. Crosby Steamer Trunk has a new home. Three brand new colours will be arriving early next week.

Lucy and her friend Sammy.

Aquaforce

I've been working away on my Log Cabin squares. Six are finished and I like how the colours look different in each one. When all my squares are finished we will lay them out to make sure that squares sitting beside each other have different centres. I don't want all purple centres together and then all green centres together.

Mr. FedEx brought in a box this morning with four brand new colours of Ito.

Brian Smith has another new pattern out. I am not sure if Brian sleeps. Meet Aquaforce.

Techniques and stitches used 
Mitred squares 
Eyelets 
Picking up stitches 
Garter stitch 
Stocking stitch

This generously sized shawl starts with mitered squares, then stitches are picked up to work sideways on both sides, making a large triangle shape.

Yarn used 
Hedgehog fibres skinny singles 2 skeins shade Deep end (A) 
Hedgehog fibres twist sock 1 skein shade Magpie (B) 
Amounts used 
(A) 195 grams 
(B) 42 grams

Speaking of not sleeping - this week is the British Open from Northern Ireland. I will be up early Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday to watch. We have looked at the Thursday tee times and it looks like 4am will be when my alarm goes off. It comes on TV at 1:30 but that is way too early.

Latte

This is Latte from the Mode at Rowan Brushed Fleece book. Lynda knit this for us a few months ago and it has been in hiding until we could share pictures of the new book.

This is the smallest size and it takes 7 Brushed Fleece. The pattern calls for 9mm needles but Lynda went down to an 8mm.

Thank goodness we took pictures last week. It is going to be way too hot for Lynn to have this on later this week.

We also took pictures of Slow Curves (pattern purchased on Ravelry). Joji's patterns are very well written and very easy to follow.

Slow Curves is a crescent shawl design that alternates wedges of solid colors with wedges of ‘faded’ or mixed yarns. With the use of short rows, these sections create curves that move like a pendulum. On one side of the shawl you will see 4 definite solid sections and on the other side you will see them all blended together.  

The result is this beautiful, big, optically intriguing shawl.

I used 4 skeins of Hedgehog Skinny Singles.

Thank you Alex for blocking this for me. It is huge! Alex used the new Flexible Blocking Wires and really liked them.

Felting supplies are on the way. The needles come packaged in this cute tube so you shouldn't lose them.

There will be lots of colours. 

Undyed fleece is coming in small (1 oz) and large (1 pound) balls.

We are still catching up on TV from when we were away. Tonight is The Amazing Race Canada. I am going to work on my Log Cabin square while watching this. You have to watch - it's not a show that you can just listen to.

Perfect Blend

We have madelinetosh ASAP on sale for 20% off to make room in the store for fall Rowan. One skein of ASAP will make the Big Hat - pattern free on Ravelry.

I put together some colours of ASAP with the new pompoms.

This is Holi Party - pattern purchased on Ravelry knit in ASAP.

Alex started a new project this week. It is looking good!

She is making The Pop Blanket with Noro Ito and Cascade Eco +.

Blanket can be made any size desired. When made to the gauge suggested, the squares measure approximately 6.25” square. The sample is baby blanket size, it measures 26” x 32.5”. Of course you can knit this pattern in any yarn and gauge that you like, but note that this will change the yardage requirements. POP is a fabulous project for using up colourful scraps of leftover yarn.

Yesterday afternoon I started on Perfect Blend (the Casapinka MKAL). I'm using 2 Mini Colour Fade kits from SweetGeorgia Yarns. I still have two sections (darker teals) to knit but it doesn't take very long to knit Clue 1.

If you haven't started yet, the second clue just came out so you have lots of time to catch up.

Mark your calendar!

Navelli

This Navelli was knit by Felicia Lo of SweetGeorgia Yarns in Tough Love Sock. It is awesome!

Navelli is a relaxed lightweight summer sweater, knit in the round from the bottom up and featuring colorwork at the body hem and folded sleeves with a tiny peek of contrast color for visual and structural interest. The front and back are separated at the armholes and worked flat with short row shaping at the shoulders. Named for an ancient town in Italy, known as the land of crocuses and saffron, this sweater is the third in my “Knitaly” series of designs (following Tegna and Marettimo). 

This sweater is designed to fit with 4-15” of positive ease, depending on your preferred fit. Sample shown on is a size 4 with 13” of positive ease at the bust and 2” of positive ease at the sleeve. Please see the schematic for full fit information.

80% superwash merino wool, 20% nylon 425 yards / 388 m per 4 oz / 115g skein

A perfect blend of warmth and strength to make a hardwearing sock yarn that can stand up to your affection and abuse. Tough Love Sock is our best-selling yarn and knits up beautifully into fine-gauge sweaters, small shawls, as well as socks! Spun from 80% superwash and super soft merino and 20% nylon, this 3-ply yarn is so versatile — knit it firmly for hard wearing socks, knit it loosely for drapey shawls, or knit it doubled for a great worsted weight substitute.

Do you watch Felicia's weekly vlog? Here is this week's that talks about Navelli.

Here is the main magazine from Mode at Rowan which should be in the store on August 1.

We have started to rearrange the store and will have a section in the front room dedicated to Mode at Rowan. It's just the start of moving - we will have it looking pretty when all the colours arrive.

Some days it is hard to come up with pictures and today I have so many that I've already started tomorrow and Monday's post. We're trying to get caught up on our TV shows but I'm opting for sleep. Maybe 1/2 hour more of knitting.