Happy Dance!!!

Uschitita is on the way. It left The Netherlands today and I think we will see it on Wednesday. It's too early to start tracking it but I should start to get updates tomorrow.

This is Andromeda.

Awakening

I borrowed pictures from Steffi's Instagram feed. All of these should be in the boxes as well as a few more.

Backwoods

Butterscotch

Cosmopolitan

Days Like This

Frequency

Galaxy

Havanna

Highlands

Love is a Battlefield

Midnight

Ornament

Studio

Unknown (an interesting name :) )

Tiny Dancer

There are a few more colours that I can't find pictures of. Plus there will be two Luckytitas.

Mr. Canpar brought in a box with new sock yarn. Lang is 75% wool and 25% nylon. We machine wash and machine dry our socks that are made with it.

The twin socks with two identical colour repeats in one ball. Begin the first sock with the yarn from the inside of the ball. After about 200m you will find a piece of unprinted yarn. Cut this away. After that, the same colour repeat begins again for the second sock. 

Hodgsons Joy is a new pattern from The Fibre Co. You can purchase it on Ravelry.

Hodgsons Joy is a pretty cardigan showcasing shifting bands of texture. Knitted in Lore, it is a lightweight yet warm layering piece that will take the chill off Wintery days. The cardigan is worked in one piece from the hem to the armholes, then the fronts and back are worked separately. The sleeves are worked in the round from the bottom up and set into the armholes.

The yarn used is called Lore. It will be available in the store tomorrow (September 1).

Processed in a mill in England’s historical textile region of West Yorkshire, Lore is made of 100% lambswool from the Romney sheep breed also referred to locally as Kent lamb. It is an honest woolen spun DK weight yarn that blooms into a beautiful knitted fabric after washing.  Garments made from Lore will wear well and are perfect for everyday and special adventures alike.  We named this yarn Lore to honour the stories we create with wool. Great stories happen to those who knit them.  Won’t you share your knitting story with us?

 Comfort

 Gentle

 Heaven

 Logical

 Mystery

Stable

This vest is beautiful. It is called Bowder Stone and you can purchase the pattern on Ravelry. 

Bowder Stone is a richly cabled waistcoat; ideal for layering under fitted jackets. Knitted in pieces using Lore, it is seamed for structure and longevity. Wear it relaxed and open or add an optional buttonhole to fasten it. It’s a versatile Winter essential we would all appreciate in our wardrobe.

Wow. That's a lot of pictures today. I could add more but I'm going to stop and save a few for the weekend.

Show Offs

Linda came in today with her finished Marettimo (pattern purchased on Ravelry) knit in Hedgehog Sock. She used Cereal, Iris and Velvet. It's very pretty. The sweater is lightweight. Some people think that you can't wear wool in the summer. If it is 35, feels like 40 with the humidity, then it is too hot to wear a wool sweater. It's too hot for most clothes. But on a day like today you could easily wear this.

Marettimo is a relaxed lightweight summer sweater, knit in the round from the bottom up and featuring a simple feather and fan lace detail at the hem and sleeves. The front and back are separated at the armholes and worked flat with short row shaping at the shoulders. Named for a small island off the coast of Sicily, this sweater is the second in my series of designs (Tegna is the first) named for Italian towns where I dream of wearing them someday.

Jeff stopped in this afternoon with his latest blanket. He still has the border to finish. The whole blanket is crocheted with tosh merino dk. He used pencil crayons and graph paper to come up with the colours. It is truly amazing!! If you go to the Rockton Fair (every year on Thanksgiving weekend) you will see Jeff's work entered in the craft area. He has won the red ribbon for his fabulous blankets for the past three years.

We are almost packed for the Knitters' Fair. We set up next Friday and will be ready to sell on Saturday.

This year we are in booths 15, 16 and 17.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters’ Fair is the oldest and largest one-day knitting event in Canada. Organized and hosted by The Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters' Guild, it is truly organized "by knitters, for knitters". 

The Fair is held at "The Aud" Kitchener Memorial Auditorium Complex in Kitchener, Ontario, and hosts over 80 vendors offering the latest and greatest of knitting products. The Fair is your one stop shop to see and feel the latest yarn, ogle the vibrant colours, visit with friends, have lunch, listen to a great speaker, be inspired by our Fashion Show, and pamper yourself at our Knitters' Spa. Our vendors offer an incredible selection of yarn and fibre in every colour, knitting books, patterns, buttons, tools, and accessories. We also welcome several vendors who offer fibre for spinning.

Read more about the Knitters' Fair...

It's bed time because I need to be in the store early tomorrow morning. The ladies from Soak are stopping by to bring goodies for Camp. I've mentioned it before but our goodie bags this year are going to be one of the best we have ever had.
-Soak
-Rowan
-madelinetosh
-Churchmouse Yarns
-Knitting Fever Inc.
Plus more on the way.

Tranquility

Mr. FedEx brought in a box of yummy yarn from SweetGeorgia late yesterday afternoon. We have new Party of Five kits. Cathy made this gorgeous 3 Color Cashmere Cowl (pattern purchased on Ravelry). The colour is called Tranquility. I brought the kit home from TNNA for Cathy and she put it to very good use. I love the colours.

There are four new colourways in all. This is Hearth.

Firelight

Aurora

I have all the merino light on the website now including the brand new colours that start at 667.

Light Across the Grasses

Wash House

Killing Me Softly

The newest Churchmouse patterns arrived today. I thought it would be a good idea to get our patterns in order. I didn't realize that Lynn and Alex were going to sit on the floor and make a mess :)

Now back to my cardigan. I didn't do anything on it last night. I needed to wind a skein. It's wound now and I'm going to watch Big Brother and knit. Lynn has made it through the first short row section on hers. Tomorrow we are going to play with some of the new colours of dk to come up with different combinations.

New Tosh

Mr. UPS brought in 3 out of 4 boxes from madelinetosh today. These pretties are new colours of tosh sport. There are also new colours of tosh dk and merino light that I will try and get on the website tomorrow.

Today's discounted pattern from Ambah O'Brien is Kimba (purchased on Ravelry). The discount runs for 24 hours. She posted it on Facebook around 6pm today so my guess is that the discount will end around 6pm EST August 29.

Enjoy an automatic 50% off today’s featured pattern, just add to your cart to see the new price.  

This is my Kimba. I really enjoyed knitting the shawl. I used Hedgehog Skinny Singles in Raku, Cereal, Wildcard and Hurricane.

Beth and I hosted a dinner party tonight. I'm exhausted so this is going to be short.

We were boring Lucy so she got comfortable on the couch. Her snoring was so loud.

Roko had better things to do than socialize. It is much better to play with two toys at once.

Now to load the dishwasher and then The Amazing Race Canada. I need to knit a few rows on my cardigan.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Glitch (free on Ravelry) is a new pattern from Beata Jezek (the mastermind behind Hedgehog Fibres).

In a technical sense, a glitch is the unexpected result of a malfunction, especially occurring in software, digital images or audio.I’ve achieved a similar glitch effect in knitting by randomising traditional stranded colourwork that I amplified by adding a marled aspect. The result is an unpredictable fabric; a unique glitch to every knitter. 

The cowl is knit with 2 strands of Hedgehog Sock.

I woke up this morning to an email from Stephie at Uschitita. She is dying yarn for us right now. I'm not sure if it will be here in time for the Knitters' Fair but we can hope. I don't know what colours are coming either. I asked for a list so hopefully we get that in a few days.

There were also numerous emails from UPS. There will be four boxes arriving tomorrow from madelinetosh. We also have a box coming from The Fibre Co. filled with Arranmore Light.

It's the best time of the year in a yarn shop. Shipments of new yarn are arriving. New pattens are being released. The weather is going to cool down and we can wear our hand knits.

I'm working the second set of short rows on my cardigan.

What is a short row? It is a row that you don't knit to the end. You knit part way through the row and then turn and work in the other direction. It sounds easy but there is one small trick to it. If you just turn and knit in the other direction you will end up with holes. This is where the term 'wrap and turn' comes in.

Here is a free guide for short rows from Interweave Knits.

The collar on my Comfort Fade Cardi is worked in garter stitch - knit every row. This makes the wrap and turn easier. You don't need to worry about the wrap on the row after the wrap and turn.

I suggest casting on 20 stitches with scrap yarn and playing with wrap and turns. You will find that they are easier than you think.

So I was looking further on Ravelry and there is another Glitch pattern (also free on Ravelry).

Beata had fun with this pattern.