New pattern from Ambah

Meet the Shiri Wrap - a new shawl from Ambah O'Brien.

Knit yourself a lace-weight delicacy. Shiri is a gorgeous light wrap, large enough to snuggle up in, light enough to wear year-round. Choose neutrals for a modern go-with-anything piece, or add some vibrancy with bold colours for a statement wrap that is sure to turn heads. Let Shiri be the song of your soul. 

Join us over in my Ravelry group for a Shiri-a-long (KAL) and knit yours in lovely company with gorgeous prizes to inspire completion. 

Both written and charted instructions are included for the lace sections. Intermediate: simple lace and shaping, joining with three needle bind off, picking up many stitches and working i-cord. This is a substantial project with a truly beautiful end result.

The shawl is knit in lace weight - madelinetosh prairie or Mrs. Crosby Reticule would be great choices.

There wasn't a lot of knitting today. I did make it to the first fade. Just two rows so you might not see it but that was my goal and now I can head to bed. I don't want to. I'd like to keep going but I was up early today and if I'm going to work tomorrow I need some sleep.

It's a good day when...

We have a new Fading Point in the store. Diana brought it in yesterday afternoon. We used one of the Mrs. Crosby Train Case kits - Submarine. The colours are amazing. And the shawl is super soft.

Train Case is a blend of superwash merino, nylon and Outlast - a rayon fiber that interacts with your body to moderate temperature. No more being too hot or too cold. Train Case is machine-washable which makes it perfect for socks, shawls and sweaters.

It's a good day when your knitting matches your bag. The start of my Comfort Fade Cardi and my new Atenti Hope Basket.

I know. It is going to be hotter than ever this weekend and I'm posting pictures of wool sweaters. Winter will be here before we know it. Fall Rowan should be in the store by August 1 and there will be a new book from Marie Wallin. Bloomsbury: Collection Nine.

BLOOMSBURY is a collection of fairisle and stitch designs inspired by the life style and culture of the Bloomsbury group of artists and writers at the turn of the twentieth century. The 8 womenswear designs are knitted using Rowan Felted Tweed, one of Marie's favourite yarns. 

We photographed this collection at  'Stoneywell' in rural Leicestershire - a beautiful Arts & Crafts house now owned by the National Trust.

The book is going to be amazing. It will be in our fall order - you can call and reserve a copy to make sure you get it the minute it arrives.

My garden loved the rain we had the past few days. I'm not sure it is going to be happy with the heat. I will be watering over the weekend.

Fading

In the chaos of all the boxes yesterday we didn't get one opened until this morning.

We have two new colours of Uneek Sock. The kit has two balls that are dyed exactly the same. You will end up with socks that match perfectly.

Alex put together some combinations for the Comfort Fade Cardi. She had fun playing in the new tosh.

The colours are going from right to left.
Ember
Dark Roast
Simply Greige
Good Silence

Venti Dragon Mocha
Berlin
Simpky Greige
Horn

There were individual skeins of single ply fingering weight in our order from Autumn and Indigo. Perfect for shawls. I have added them to the website. Claire's colours are different from the other hand dyed yarns we have in the store. This made it a perfect fit.

Here are swatches of Cascade and Vintage Love.

I had a bit of an epiphany today. Why not use a Fading Point kit to knit Chevron Shenanigans (pattern purchased on Ravelry)? The large size takes 5 skeins of fingering weight.

Now I want to start another project :)

Speaking of projects. I knit some more on my Comfort Fade Cardi tonight while watching Big Brother. It's later than I thought so I will post pictures tomorrow. The yarn is beautiful to knit with.

Seven boxes arrived today

The tosh is here. Kerstin and Linda were digging in the bag like little kids. :) The colours are amazing.

As we were unpacking I put together four colours of tosh dk for the Comfort Fade Cardi.
Patagonia
Night in Chile
Simply Greige
Paper

Translation
Patagonia
Night in Chile (which has a bit of purple in it that matches the purple of Good Silence)
Good Silence

The order from Autumn and Indigo arrived today as well. Claire's colours are amazing. These are the kits for the Comfort Fade Cardi.

The Fading Point kits are awesome.

Linda came in wearing her latest Bambara. Stunning and so summery.

Linda wanted me to hang it on a mannequin. I said 'No way. You are going to model it.' It looks amazing on her.

I'm home and on my way upstairs to wind some yarn. It's time to cast on my Comfort Fade Cardi.

Sewing

The tosh merino light page is looking a lot better this morning. I'm in the store because the madelinetosh order was supposed to be delivered today. I missed the driver so we are going to see the yarn tomorrow.

Before I left home I got out my mom's sewing machine. I might quilt a bit this afternoon. It is a digital high tech machine - much more than I need but I think I have it figured out so that I can sew a straight line. :) Then I needed thread so I stopped at The Quilt Rack before the store. Lucy has beautiful Kaffe Fassett fabric so of course I had to buy some.

I don't make fancy quilts. Just squares and strips. I'm going to use the new Kaffe knitting patterns for fall as inspiration.

I'm home and have been through all my Kaffe Fassett fabric. Of course I don't have enough for what I thought I wanted to do. Don't get me wrong. I have lots just not the right colours. So I pulled out some of my batiks and am doing some easy sewing. Just to get the hang of the machine. It's so fancy - it has a thread cutter. I was too cheap to buy a machine with that feature.

Well the sewing was easy but when you can't cut the fabric correctly it isn't as easy. 6 1/2" + 6 1/2" meant different things at different times today. It's all good. I got out a pen and paper and came up with a different plan. I'm kind of exhausted by the whole sewing thing. LOL.

The first square. The teal squares are all supposed to be different sizes but I have a few that are close. I'll improve going forward. The stripes are going to run in the opposite direction on the next one. I really want someone to do all the cutting for me and just let me sew.

Now a few minutes of knitting. I'm just about to add the fourth colour into Fading Point. Small problem - it's joined to the other side so I need to finish it first. Then bed. Tomorrow is a big day. Mr. UPS will be bringing 5 boxes and Mr. Canpar is bringing one.

The best laid plans

There hasn't been any knitting today (read below) so I'm showing pretty pictures from Hedgehog Fibres. This is Flying Fringe - a free pattern on their website.

Easy rectangular scarf in garter stitch knitted on the bias. You will be holding two strands of fingering weight yarn together for a marled effect. To create a similar looking marl only change one strand at a time. You won't have to worry about weaving in the ends, they will become part of the fringe. 

YARN 

Hedgehog Fibres 3 different skeins of Sock Yarn and/or Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles and 9 different Sock Minis. Both samples were knitted using a mixture of the two bases. Total yardage approx. 1900m including fringe. Yarn held double throughout the project, try changing one strand at a time.

Yesterday afternoon I started to add the new madelinetosh merino light colours to the website. I wanted to be ready for the shipment arriving on Tuesday. The new shades have pretty pictures and I decided to change out all shades. It sounded like a good idea at the time. It took a bit but I have all the shade cards updated for current colours. I can't do it for discontinued colours.

These are from two different browsers on my computer. It takes time for the pictures to populate through - and they can populate differently on different computers. It might look better on yours. Hopefully by the end of the week the shadecards will look much better. 

This is from my iMac. I'm not patient and want them all correct now :) Beth just looked on her computer and the picture is much prettier there.

Now I'm going to knit a few rows. Imposters is on soon and we are finally getting somewhere.

Still Growing

We love Girandola from Louisa Harding. The yarn is self-patterning with a hint of sheen. Each ball is 200 grams with 560m (610 yards).

One ball makes Brickless. We knit the store samples on 3.75mm needles.

There are new patterns available on Ravelry for Girandola.

Adriana can be knit with long or short sleeves.

You are using two colours for the Loredana Top.

One ball should make the hat and wristlets - Isabella.

Here is our baby when she was little. I was going through pictures today and found this one. Dad had her at the vets this morning for a regular check up and they weighed her. She's at 167 lbs. and still growing. She could put on 30-40 more pounds. She takes up a bit more room in the vehicle than she used to.

Not everyone is happy with the rain we've had today but my flowers are loving it!