House, dogs and new yarns

Sorry-I have been very slow making posts. I am surprised my mom hasn't said anything.

In the apartment, the computer was in the kitchen beside a TV. It was very easy to sit down, turn on the TV and write a post. Now I have to go upstairs and there is no TV. I usually run up and check my messages and then back downstairs to knit. I am getting more knitting done now!! There are also more chores to do in the house. The first being keeping it clean. I am sorry to say that our apartment looked like a tornado hit it but the house is very neat and orderly. Everything gets put away in it's proper place now.

This is our new mirror. The big picture didn't capture the colours so I took a close up. It was definitely worth the wait to get the colour we wanted.
Roko and Melo absolutely love the new house. They are resting after a round of playing. It is fun to go into the unfinished basement and wrestle. The top picture is Melo and Roko is sleeping at the front door. Roko is already bigger than Melo and he is only 9 months old.


We just received in a new shipment of Dream in Color Smooshy Sock yarn. Every colour arrived but I can't say how long we will have them for. You can have either of these patterns free with the purchase of a skein of Smooshy.



Yesterday afternoon three large boxes of Sirdar yarns arrived. There is a great new baby yarn called Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK. The yarn is a blend of 80% Bamboo and 20% Wool. It is machine washable and there is a pattern book with lots of great designs.

Hug is 50% wool and 50% polyester. There are 6 colours along with a great pattern book.

Has anyone been watching Canadian Idol? I live in Ancaster which is just on the outskirts of Hamilton. The city is in full 'vote for Brian Melo' mode. I was driving home yesterday afternoon and a lady was holding up signs at a traffic light that read 'Honk for Melo'. My parents don't watch the show but they are keeping up to date on his progress.

Back to knitting

The store has been slower today so I have been knitting away on a vest for myself. I haven't had much knitting time in the last few weeks so it feels good to get something accomplished. It is the Hip to be Square Jacket minus sleeves. There are a few changes being done but the basic design is the same. I need to get moving-all of a sudden last night it hit me that I have two weeks to get it done.

When I returned home from Columbus in June, I talked about shawl pins that would be coming from a company called Moving Mud. I just talked with them and my shawl pins will be ready next week-just in time for the Knitter's Fair. Here is a sample of what is coming-no two are the same because they are hand made.

Mom and dad came over last night (along with their friends) to hang our new mirror-it looks amazing. I will get pictures over the weekend. It is the first thing on our walls.

How about Big Brother? I thought Dick was going to hit Jen. Talk about going out like a sore loser!!! It will be interesting now because there aren't many house guests left-they are going to have to start turning on each other.

New Yarns

This post was started on Tuesday-I will add new content at the bottom.

Life might get back to normal this week-probably not.

I spent yesterday in front of the computer doing Gone Stitchin' work. The last mailing is now complete and will go out today. Now we just have to finish up the last minute details.

Roko is at the vets-he's being fixed today. Poor guy. Melo will be staying with mom and dad for a few days so that Roko can rest. It will be interesting-Roko has never been away from Melo.

Lots of boxes arrived today.

-Kaffe Fassett sock yarn

-Mirasol yarns

With no posting last week, I didn't talk about Hell's Kitchen. I was very happy to see Rock win-I think he will do a good job. How about Big Brother? Dustin getting voted off was amazing. I hate it when the house guests get cocky and think they are invincible. Eric voting against Dustin was great-the week before Dustin should have voted to get Eric out like he promised he would do. I bet he is second guessing himself.

It is now Thursday morning.

Roko is doing well. He has to wear a cone on his head so he doesn't scratch or lick-it isn't making him happy. He hasn't noticed that Melo isn't around. He isn't allowed on either of our beds so Beth spent the first night on the living room couch. Not very comfortable. We have moved her mattress-king size-into the loft so they can both sleep on it.

The new yarn, Silk Flamme, and books from Elsebeth Lavold have arrived. The yarn is amazing-wool, silk and alpaca.

It's time to start thinking about the Knitter's Fair in Kitchener. The show is only a couple of weeks away. A word of advice for those coming to the show-don't come until noon. The show is packed at 9:30 and you can't get into many of the booths. If you come at noon, the crowd starts to thin out a bit.

Catching Up

The store has been slow so far today (not surprising) so I am taking some time to catch up. I really should be putting yarn away but just can't make myself do it.

The tent sale was hugely successful for myself and everyone who came. They walked away with bags of yarn and got amazing deals. Some ladies paid as little as $150 and got over $500 worth of yarn. Since you can't lock the tent, we had to put the yarn away every night and haul it back out in the morning-I really don't want to see another box for a while.

Stitch N' Pitch had a great turnout. I believe there was close to 600 tickets sold. Everyone looked to be having a good time at the game. Ace (the Blue Jays mascot) visited out section for a bit and we were featured on the Videotron. The Toronto Blue Jays and Stitch N' Pitch are now working on some of the minor problems that did come up so that next year will run even smoother.

We are expecting many shipments next week of new yarns-more to follow.

Lace Weight

Two new yarns for shawls have arrived in the store.

This is Prism's Lace Wool. I received eight skeins to try it. The colours are amazing-the pictures don't do them any justice.


The second yarn is Fino from Alpaca with a Twist. We received about half the colours with the others coming in about two weeks.

Stitch N' Pitch

I now have internet in the store-very exciting that it worked earlier than Bell said it would.

I can not describe to you how much yarn we have for the tent sale. I know it won't all fit!!! You might think that it will only be odd balls-not true. I just pulled an aran weight cotton out of the back room and there were full bags of at least four colours. There were also full bags of Jamieson's Soft Shetland, Shetland Double Knitting, Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK, Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK and Lang Soft Shetland. Don't forget that if you pay with cash there will be an extra discount of 10%.

Just a reminder to all who are coming for Stitch N' Pitch on Wednesday night. We will all be entering through Gate 1. They have set up a special gate so there are no security problems with knitting needles. If you are picking up your tickets at the game, you can get them at Gate 1 as well.

See you at the game!!!

Jacket needs a name

I am very tired today and my brain isn't working. Any thoughts on a name for the jacket?

Robbed by my Mom

My mom called me this morning that she wanted to knit a sweater for my dad. She thought the new Highlander from Alpaca with a Twist would be nice to knit with. Unfortunately my dad does the laundry and the sweater would be ruined so I talked her into Pure Merino from Berroco. After being out and about she stopped by to pick it up. She decided she needed a nice knitting bag and she wanted the Jordana Paige Messenger Bag in the pink/black tweed. This she was going to pay for so she left me $80 on the counter. Of course she needed knitting needles as well. Bamboo would be nice to knit with but the Addi turbos would be better. Two sets of Addi circular went into the new knitting bag. Not a bad haul for Mom!!

The Mystery Sweater is done-okay, there are a few ends to sew in. Cathy is looking very tired in the pictures. She spent most of the day in the warehouse working on the tent sale yarn. Then she came to the store and worked on more of it. The tent is going to be very full with some great deals!!!

I used 18 balls of Naturally Vero colour 51 for the jacket. The pattern is almost finished.




This picture shows a different option with the shawl pin.

Mystery project and shawl pins

Here is the neck on my mystery project. I have finished all the knitting and spent some time today knitting and ripping the neck. The problem is that it has to look good from both sides-now it does.

The rest of these pictures are shawl pins that are handmade in British Columbia. I love them and use them on many garments in the store.

These pictures are for a mail order customer-Phyllis lives in the Yukon and has been a customer of mine since the store opened. I have no idea how she found us but I have been mailing her yarn for almost 20 years. She needs a pin for a vest so I have taken pictures to show her the different shapes that are available. Because the pins are handmade, no two are alike in colour.

New house and store arrivals

I got a new toy today-a laptop for the store. Many days people come in with patterns calling for yarns that we don't carry. Now I can check out the tension, yardage, etc while they are in the store. I can also show shade cards for yarns that we carry. Shipping can now be done from the store and I won't have to bring boxes home.

A shipment came in today from Namaste-we received some new styles of bags that we haven't carried before as well as some bags that we have been out of for some time.

Beth and I picked out a mirror at Pier 1 a couple of months ago. There were two colours in the store-reds and oranges or greys and teals. We couldn't make up our minds as to which would look better in the house. We finally decided on the greys and teals but Pier 1 was then sold out of them. Beth paid for a mirror but after six weeks they still didn't have stock of them. Well, it finally came in today!!! Now we need to get Dad back to put it up.
I got a bit of knitting done in the store today. The second sleeve is almost done on the mystery sweater. Here is a small portion of the back-yes I know they are different lengths. This is the shawl pin that will be used to close the jacket.

Mystery project

My mystery project has had a set back. I was making a vest and have the fronts and back done. The shoulder seams are sewn and I had Sarah try it on in the store on Saturday. It was too big in the shoulders making them sit funny. There is a solution-it is becoming a jacket. Sleeve one is done and the second one is cast on. I promise pictures this week!!!

I was going to have my first golf game of the year today but we decided against it with the heat and humidity. I got a bit of paperwork done, a newsletter finished, parcels ready for the post office and a bit of knitting done.

We are going to sit down and watch Hell's Kitchen when I am done here. I really don't care who wins, just happy it wasn't Jen. There was something about her but I can't put my finger on what it was.

What's up with Big Brother? Kail and Jen again?

Lots of pictures

I have pictures!! The blog has looked pretty boring lately so I am adding some colour from the store.

This is my mystery project. I am almost done-if it works there will be finished pictures next week.

A new vest knit out of Trendsetter Tonalita. The picture on the pattern (3442) didn't excite me but I really like it finished. I used a KnitStix for the closure. After I took the picture I changed to a new glass shawl pin from Artistic Visions. It looks even better!!! Here is an example of some of Christine's work. The pins we have are a bit different-no two are the same. If you have looked at these shawl pins before-great news-the price has come down.

In my moving around madness, some of the colours of Rowan Felted Tweed have found a new home.

This is Jasper from Berroco. The yarn is pure merino and great to touch.

This basket is the Highlander from Blue Sky Alpacas. I talked about this in a recent post and showed the shade card but here it is in a ball.

Stitch N' Pitch

On Wednesday August 15th, the Toronto Blue Jays will be hosting a Stitch N' Pitch night. The game is against the LA Angels and should be a good game.

What is Stitch N' Pitch?
Stitch N' Pitch brings together two American traditions — Baseball and the NeedleArts. Come to a ball game and knit, crochet, embroider, cross-stitch and needlepoint. Sit among friends, family and colleagues and cheer on your favorite Baseball Team.

The tickets for the game are $20. Contact me in the store (1-800-667-9167 or 905-648-1994) to purchase tickets. Attendees will receive a Blue Jays knitting tote bag that will have some goodies in it for you.

I will continue to update this post as more information becomes available.

July 9
The seats for the game will be in section 207 and 208. The Blue Jays thought that they should put us in a section where we probably won't get a ball-people are going to be chatting and knitting and might not be paying attention to the game.