Rainbow

Mr. Canada Post brought in two exciting boxes today. The first was from Frabjous Fibers.

This was recently posted on the their Facebook page.

The kits are amazing!!

It's the rainbowload of Mini Skeins, oh yes. Four of our popular Mini Skein Packs are combined into one enormous, beautiful rainbow for a full-spectrum knitting experience! Twenty 1-oz Mini Skeins: combine them all for a large project, or spread them out over several smaller projects. The possibilities are truly endless!
 
Cheshire Cat fingering (100% wool): 128 yards per 1 oz. skein, 2560 yards total

There is also a special kit in the box. We're calling it Beautiful Soup - pot 11. It is one of the kits that I used for my shawl.

Right now we are the only store with this colourway.

The second box was filled with Zauberball Crazy. Now we have even more colours for Beth's scarf.

Saturday June 11 is Heritage Days in Ancaster. In previous years, Wilson Street was closed for the parade and then the road reopened by 11am. This year Wilson St. will be closed until 3pm. Cathy will be in the store (I'm going to be in Washington). There could be two options for getting to the store. Turn onto Academy or Lodor from Rousseaux St. Park on one of the back streets and come up Lorne Ave. This will bring you to the variety store beside us. The other option is to ask the police officer at Wilson and Rousseaux if they will let you down. I can't guarantee either.

Beth and I talked about closing the store for the day but it isn't easy to get the word out. And the road could open early and I'm worried about nothing. Or the police officer is a knitter and is happy to let you through.

It's time for some knitting. We are watching The Good Wife and are a few episodes from finishing the second season. Things are getting good.

Jelly Beans

Here is another of our favourites from Ambah.

Lilli Pilli is a beautiful Australian plant whose deep magenta berries inspired the colors of this shawl.
Worked tip to tip in three fun colors; two striped together contrasted with a third for the lace sections. Lilli Pilli is fun to knit, and works up big and cozy. There are so many ways to use color in this project ― let your stash out to play!

The pattern includes both written and charted instructions for the lace section.

Pattern: Lilli Pilli (purchased on Ravelry)

The shawl takes three skeins of fingering weight yarn - each 380m long.

Cathy knit Lilli Pilli and her colour combination is gorgeous. She used Mrs. Crosby Train Case in Greystone, Creme Fraiche and Spangled Cotinga.

The shawl is super long and there are many different ways that it can be worn.

A bit of a teaser for you. One of the new gradient kits from SweetGeorgia that should be shipped to us in June. This kit is called Jelly Bean.

Puppies

The puppies turned one month old today. We get to meet them in a couple of weeks.

I finished. I want to say it was done last night but I was so tired I had to go to bed. This morning I knit the last 6 grey rows and cast off. I couldn't deal with the ends today so..

I've been working away on this shawl all afternoon. I think that I might have it finished in time for TNNA. The big problem - there are a lot of ends on this shawl too. :(

Instant Gratification

The shipment from Freia arrived yesterday afternoon. These colours of Bulky are awesome.

One ball of Bulky will make this cowl. You can make easy gifts while sitting in the car on your summer vacation.

One ball of Bulky will also make Jetsetter (pattern purchased on Ravelry)

And don't forget about You Look Gradient.

Big, bulky scarves are going to be hot again this winter.

And there is nothing like knitting a scarf in a few evenings.

If you can't think about Bulky right now, here is a great shawl knit with two balls of Fingering weight.

Pattern: Auburn Wave (purchased on Ravelry)
Needles: 4.5mm (this is important to get a great size shawl)

Auburn Wave is one of my favourite patterns. If you can knit, purl, increase, decrease and count to 20 then you can make this.

 

Can you imagine the scarf knit in Vamp? Tina knocked it out of the park with this new colour.

I gave myself a deadline to finish my shawl and I will have it finished before bed tonight. I haven't knit this evening because Beth and I went to Terra after work. I wanted some back yard flowers.

We bought two planters for the deck and some hanging plants for the fence. Now we know that more plants are needed for the deck so we'll be visiting Terra on Monday evening.

It's time to knit. I'll share pictures tomorrow. A friend came home with me to model.

Inara Wrap

 

Here is another great shawl from Ambah. I debated between this one and the one that I am knitting

Pattern: Inara Wrap (pattern purchased on Ravelry)

Let Inara be the blank slate on which you paint your own personality. Select two sets of gradient yarns for a rich ombre, or mix and and match from your stash for a roadmap of your favourite tones. Diagonal columns of alternating lace and garter stitch make a strong statement without being intimidating. Included is a schematic to colour in to play with your colour scheme. Worked end to end, this long wrap can easily be shortened with fewer repeats of the pattern sequence, instructions are given for 3 lengths, with both written and charted instructions included for the lace section.

DIMENSIONS
Length: Short 64”/163cm, (Medium 80”/203cm, Long 96” / 243cm) Width at centre: 18.1” / 46cm

YARN
Fingering Weight / 4-ply
S: Two Gradient sets of 4 x 125 yd / 110m, or 2 x 500 yd / 457 m single colour
M: Two Gradient sets of 5 x 125 yd / 110m or 2 x 625 yd / 572 m single colour
L: Two Gradient sets of 6 x 125 yd/110m or 2 x 750 yd / 686m single colour

Two gradient kits from Frabjous Fibers will make the medium shawl. There is another shipment of kits on the way to us (they made it to Canada Customs so we might see them on Tuesday) including

 

A neutral for one half of the shawl will mix well with any colour.

The possibilities are endless. I've already put together so many interesting combinations.

Right now I am leaning towards mixing a purple kit with a green kit.

Here is a link to the Ravelry page of people who have used the Frabjous Fibers kits...

The Last Colour

I just finished the first section of the last colour. I took a lot of pictures but the sun wasn't cooperating. I'm not sure if you can see the differences in the purples here but they are different. It was either too much sun or too much shade in my pictures.

My goal is to finish by Saturday. That will make it three weeks to knit the shawl.

What's next? I'm going to try and finish this shawl for TNNA. Yes, I am dreaming. I don't think there is a chance but I'm going to give it a go.

Pattern: Greyhound Shawl (pattern purchased on Ravelry)
Yarn: Mrs. Crosby Hat Box

We have a new Opal sock yarn. 

Exuberant sock stripings in colors based on paintings by renowned Austrian artist and sculptor Friedenreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000). Hundertwasser rejected the straight line and embraced bold color, organic forms and humans in harmony with nature.

2102

2104

 2106

2107

Just before I hit Publish, I threw the shawl on the dining table. This shows the purple better.

Now I need to go - the TV needs my attention. We are watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee.