Merino Lace

Cathy and Lynn worked this morning so that I could have a bit of sleep. It was after 3 this morning when I finally climbed into bed.

Cathy was wearing an awesome scarf.

Pattern: Non Troppo (purchased on Ravelry)

Yarn: 1 ball of Freia Merino Lace in Aurora and 3 balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze. I believe that the colour is Hurricane - I forgot to check that.

There are two lace yarns from Freia on the website. This is a new lace. It is a bit softer than the original and has better yardage.

Fiber: Two ply 100% US Merino (Cruelty-Free)
Care: Hand wash
Ball: 75g/2.64 oz - 651 meters/712 yards
​Gauge: 32-40 sts/40-50 rows over 4” on US5 (3.75mm) needles

Right now we have
-Mist
-Quartz
-Ice Queen
-Metropolis
-Aura (pictured)
-Chinook
-Coho

The two new colours, Orchid and Pt. Reyes, will be our next shipment which I hope we will see in a few weeks.

I finished the next section of my shawl. Now I will be alternating between the two skeins and then a full section of the beige. 

Roko and Lucy were very comfortable when we had dinner with dad. If you lay under the table then good things can happen like someone drops food on the floor.

Now it's bed time. Our house is being painted and they are going to be here early in the morning. We need to move things on the main floor and take down all the curtain rods. The builder fixed nail pops but we haven't had time for the painters. I'm so excited. No more builder beige - our main floor will be painted grey. Then when that is finished my bedroom and ensuite are being painted.

Goodbye Las Vegas

Right now I’m sitting in the United Lounge in the airport. My flight was delayed an hour this morning. I knew that and stayed at the hotel. After an hour in the airport I received a text that my flight is now 5 hours delayed. So I’ve had lunch (on Air Canada) and there has been some knitting. I came here to have some quiet and charge my devices.

The view is great. I can watch the planes landing.

The bad part is I can see the Strip and I’m not there.

This was my view earlier. I had to leave because the sun was shining on me and it was very warm. I’m complaining now but I’ll be missing it when I land in Toronto at 1 in the morning to very cold weather.

I could watch the planes coming and going from here too.

I was packed and ready to go to my gate when another text came through. We’re delayed another hour. I might make it home in time to work tomorrow. The good thing is that I have my knitting with me.

Vegas Nights

Five yarn companies collaborated on a mini yarn crawl at TNNA. We went to each booth and collected a mini skein to knit the shawl called Vegas Nights (pattern available on Ravelry.)

Kit One Crochet Too

Anzula

Lorna’s Laces

SweetGeorgia

Oink Pigments

I collected all my skeins and have the yarn for this great shawl. But I’m not going to knit it. It’s going to be a prize. For what??

The Ancaster Community Food Drive is taking place on Saturday March 3. We will be collecting food and cash. When you donate you will be entered into a draw and this year we are going to be making 3 baskets of great products as the prizes. The kit for Vegas Nights will be in one basket. 

The fantastic ladies at Anzula Luxury Fibers donated this beautiful skein of Squishy Fingering/Sock for a basket.

We have more awesome items coming. Lorna’s Laces is sending a prize for each basket. I will be blogging more about this next week after I get home and talk with all my suppliers.

This afternoon I went for a really long walk and played tourist.

The Fountains at Bellagio started as I was crossing the street from Ballys.

Now I’m going to sit and relax for a few minutes. Maybe knit a few rows. I have a great knitting chair in my room.

I’m sorry to anyone who came to the store after 4 today. Cathy lives in Kitchener and I wanted her on the road home - Beth and dad both said that the snow was bad. Dad had to drive to Bowmanville this afternoon and the drive home took an hour longer than the drive there. I was supposed to be flying home today. Thank goodness I changed it until tomorrow. I might have been staying in Toronto tonight.

Sunday in Vegas

I was up early this morning to have a good breakfast and then off to the show. What is early? 6am. It’s now 6pm and I’m thinking about a little nap :)

I had fun again today.

Recycled, hand painted linen from Trendsetter. Not all the colours are coming but most are.

Here is the linen knit up. With something really cool - you can use bleach to make a pattern on the knitting. That is for another post - it’s so simple to do but I’m not sure I can find the correct words to describe it right now. I think I’m going to ask Barry from Trendsetter to do a guest post about it.

Ty Dy Cotton from Knit One Crochet Too should be in the store by the middle of February.

This easy to knit cardigan takes 4 or 5 balls (and the pattern is free).

There are patterns you can purchase on Ravelry including

Enter Ty Dy Cotton under patterns and see what comes up.

There is another yarn coming from Knit One Crochet Too - Cozette. Want a non animal fibre fingering weight yarn? This is beautiful.

I think I ordered every colour but tangerine and shamrock.

Here is a link to the shade card

That was all my yarn buying today. Then I went for a long walk. This is from the tram platform at the Bellagio.

And because I went for a long walk I had a treat. Not the whole thing. To quote my dad “I’m not a pig”

I’ve been doing website updates and getting paperwork ready so that Cathy can mail parcels tomorrow. It’s been much too long in front of my iPad. I think it’s time to close my eyes for a bit. There might be some knitting tonight. My shawl is sitting beside my iPad and I’m looking at it while I’m typing. I need to see how the next colour is going to look.

Yarn Shopping

I had fun buying yarn today. The first stop was SweetGeorgia. There are four new Party of Five kits coming in March. 

Mrs. Crosby has introduced four new colours. These will be arriving in all yarn bases by the middle of February.

New kits from Prism. These are Merino Mia. The yarn is slightly thicker than fingering weight and slightly thinner than sports weight. We used one of these kits for our store sample of So Faded.

Another new kit coming from Prism. Laura Bryant (who makes the most amazing colour combinations) is going to make us up some great colour ways.

Freia Fibers has introduced two new colours. We will have them in Shawl Ball, Lace and Bulky.

I’m very excited about the new mini skein kits from Anzula. These will be coming home in my suitcase.

I’m back in the room after a great dinner with Barry and Heidi from Trendsetter Yarns. Fontelle who owns Great Yarns in Everett, Washington was with us as well. Dining together at TNNA has been a tradition for over 20 years. We ate at Carsons Kitchen. It is a very small, very trendy restaurant in downtown Las Vegas. Thank goodness we had a reservation - the wait was close to two hours. The food was great.

I totally forgot to get a picture of Fremont Street as we walked by. This is from the cab. I think he took driving lessons from Mario Andretti. We got back to my hotel in record time.

It’s not even 10pm and I feel like it’s 2 in the morning. Time for bed. I’m going to be busy buying more yarn tomorrow.

Year of the Dog

I’ve done a lot of walking today. It’s 5:45 pm in Vegas and I’ve already walked over 10km today.

One of my stops was The Conservatory at The Bellagio.

The Chinese New Year display is beautiful. The Year of the Dog.

There were many pretty dogs but no Lucy.

This fellow is in Aria.

I wanted to rub his tummy for luck but he is roped off.

There was no knitting today - no time. I was eating breakfast before 7am and haven’t been back in the room until now. My knitting content for today is minimal. I had lunch and showed my friend Julia some of the Vegas sites. Julia owns Patternfish.com - a great website for purchasing knitting patterns.

Now it’s dinner time (pasta at California Pizza Kitchen) and then an early evening. Tomorrow is going to be exciting. I can’t wait to see what my suppliers are bringing out for spring and summer.