Pictures of my knitting!!

The hat is called Fake Isle-you can download the pattern from MagKnits. Sarah was knitting it in class on Thursday night so I decided to knit one over the weekend. It took one ball of Noro Kureyon and half a skein of Cascade 220. It was very easy to do and would make a great class for teaching Fair Isle knitting (it is on my to do list for fall). Beth has decided that since it fits her head I should give it to her.
This is sleeve one of my Noro Silk Garden Lite Cardigan. I made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to start anything new but the colour and pattern were calling my name. The pattern is from the new Sirdar Eco Wool magazine. It is a perfectly plain cardigan with garter stitch collar. I started knitting it last weekend while watching the Daytona 500. All my knitting required paying attention and this didn't. (See, you can always justify starting a new project).

I just finished unpacking a box from Dream in Color. This is the Oakleaf 3/4 shawl knit out of their new Baby Lace Weight Yarn. The yarn is 100% Superfine Australian Merino Superwash. There are 700 yards on a 4oz skein. Two skeins are needed for this shawl (pattern is free when you purchase the yarn.)

I received three skeins each of the following colours
-Blue Lagoon
-Visual Purple
-Deep Sea Flower
-Ruby River
-Dusky Aurora
-Lunar Zazzle
-Pansy Golightly
-Punky Fuschia

I am just placing another order with Dream in Color and have ordered
-Spring Tickle
-Flamingo Pie
-Cloud Jungle
We can order any colour, just let me know what you would like.

Attention all sock knitters

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock just arrived!!
We have individual skeins in
-Sweetie
-Childs Play
-Flamingo Stripe
-Tuscany
-Iris Garden
-Bucks Bar
-Baltic Sea (pictured)

And in the Little Can of Pain
-Baltic Sea
-Layette
-Black Purl
-Happy Valley
-Lorikeet
-Pin Stripe

More colours are coming (fourteen to be exact) and we can special order any colour. Dying time is usually 8-12 weeks. See all the colours that are available.

We also received some great sock patterns from Wildhorse Farm Designs. Here is a sample.

I really need to get over my second sock syndrome!!

Winding yarn

Today was Family Day in Ontario. The store wasn't open but I was there winding balls of yarn for the Tulip Cardigan kit. I was there for over 6 hours. A couple skeins were not properly rewound after dying and I had to wind them by hand. Then my ball winder was acting up.

I browsed the pictures on Ravelry for the Tulip cardigan to come up with some ideas for colour combinations. This is 3 shades of blue, a green, charcoal, brown, burgundy and lighter brown/peaches which is the border colour. I started during daylight but didn't get finished until it was dark so the colours don't show the way they should.

This uses the new bright yellow and bright yellow/orange combination along with blue, green, red, purple, lime and turquoise. The purple is the border colour.


On Saturday Beth and I went plant shopping. We are having a hard time keeping the humidity up in our house so this is one fix. I see that they are a bit blurry-sorry.


I did get some knitting accomplished yesterday during the Daytona 500. Hopefully there will be pictures later this week. The race had some very boring spots but I liked the outcome. Last night Beth wanted to watch Knight Rider. Of course we watched it as kids so we wanted to see the remake. Bad TV. Then we watched Dexter. A very disturbing show. Now we are watching TV that the whole family can watch-Deal or No Deal. My parents love this show. Dad should be calling any minute from Myrtle Beach telling us that the lady shouldn't take the deal.

Shepherd Socks and more boxes

When I was at the trade show in January I ordered some Lorna's Laces Shepherds Sock yarn. I called there today with a question and some of my colours are ready and are being shipped. Also in the shipment will be some kits in a paint can that include two skeins of yarn and a basic sock pattern.
Lorna's Laces distributes a line of patterns called iKnitiative. I first found these patterns on Ravelry and they will be here with the yarn in a couple of weeks. This is called the Fair and Square wrap that I will be knitting one day (LOL) in Tahki Donegal Tweed and Noro Silk Garden.


My dad has a job here at the store-garbage man. We pile empty boxes outside and he picks them up. He was here the other day to pick up my boxes-unfortunately he had been in South Carolina for two snow storms and the boxes were under a foot of snow. He got out as many as he could and was coming back today for more. Lucky him-we had more snow last night. He brought a shovel and dug them all out. He isn't going to be pleased to hear that I have more boxes again. A shipment of Namaste bags came and not a day too soon. We were all out of the new Malibu and Laguna bags but the store is nicely stocked again. Then the UPS driver came with a large boxe of Rowan.

I wrote this and then got busy unpacking boxes and helping customers. While doing this the UPS driver came back with more boxes-this time from Dream in Color. There were 2 boxes of Classy that included the new colours for spring-the 400 series. These are amazing-I see a tulip cardigan. We also have the pattern for the adult Tulip Cardigan. There are 5 sizes (XS-XL). You need 5 skeins for the XS and S. For the M-XL you will need 6 skeins.

The new season of Big Brother started last night. We taped it but didn't have time to watch it so now we have something to watch tonight. The Apprentice, Survivor and Big Brother-it doesn't get any better. Celebrity Apprentice has been great. The celebrities want to win but they have a career to go back to. The fighting between some of the celebrities has been hilarious.

Kauni

Ravelry is a very bad thing!! About a month ago Janet was in the store and mentioned the Autumn Leaves cardigan by Ruth Sorenson. Of course I orderd the pattern. It is knit in Kauni yarn which was made famous by The Yarn Harlot. The yarn has long colour repeats making for interesting fair isle work. The cardigans are done with two colours-one for the background and one for the leaves. I haven't knit fairisle in a long time but this looks very exciting.

I have ordered the Kauni yarn for the shop and we should have it in a couple of weeks. I wanted to add pictures of the colours but Blogger isn't being agreeable right now so here is a list.
EQ
EP
EF
EK
EL

If you are on Ravelry, just go to yarns and look up Kauni. You will see some phenomenal garments made with this yarn. Some people took old Alice Starmore patterns and knit with the Kauni. Because the yarn is changing colours, you don't need all the different balls like Starmore calls for. Take a look at crazyfiberlady's blog and you will see what I am talking about.

I haven't accomplished any knitting since my last post. Some days work can really get in the way!! :)

Family Day

In Ontario we have a new holiday in February called Family Day. This will be held on Monday, February 18. I didn't think much about the holiday, just assumed that all retail stores would be open. I was told in class last night and by my Canpar driver today that most retail stores are closed so I have decided to close that day as well.

I have been unpacking more boxes this afternoon. A huge box of Mountain Colors Bearfoot just arrived. We should have every colour in stock right now.

I am working on my Feather and Fan shawl this afternoon-maybe it wil be done by the end of the weekend!!

Wrap

Here is the wrap that I talked about yesterday from Jane Thornley. I think this might become an obsession-we will see when it is done. Putting the colours together might be more fun than knitting it. I have so many combinations put together in my head.

I am using

• Colinette Mohair
• Colinetter Giotto
• Trendsetter Dune
• Trendsetter Tonalita
• Trendsetter Checkmate
• Berroco Suede
• Rowan Kid Silk Haze

This is a great way to use up some of the balls you have in your stash!!

Pictures

Some days it is really hard to come up with a title for a post.

What is with the weather? Snow storm on Friday. Beautiful, warm and sunny yesterday. Freezing rain today and snow tonight.

We had a guild meeting last night. Mandi and Jocelyn taught crochet edgings. Many of the ladies were afraid of crochet but came away with a much better understanding.

I haven't had much time to knit but here is the progress on my baby sweater.

I have been unpacking more boxes. This is Baby Boom from Fiesta yarns. Two skeins will knit a pair of socks. They hand dye yarns in New Mexico and the colours are fabulous.

A box from Handmaiden arrived today as well. It was filled with kits for the Storm Water Shawl. The yarn is Sea Silk (70% Silk, 30% Seacell) and the colours are amazing. Each kit has 800m of yarn that can be used for this shawl or any other shawl you want to knit.

While playing on Ravelry I found this amazing wrap from Jane Thornley. Of course I had to purchase the pattern. Jane loves 'free form' knitting meaning the pattern is not written as a standard pattern. For many of us it is a bit of a challenge because we are used to the pattern telling us to do A, then B, then C. The great thing about the shawl is that it really doesn't matter. Of course I had to start it. I am using browns and purples. I hope to bring to work tomorrow and get a picture.