Tomorrow is the day

Tomorrow is the day that Jenn Steingass' new pattern will be out. I just checked UPS and our shipment of Spincycle should be arriving on Thursday. Happy Dance! I'll be ready to start this before I go away. The decision is which yarn to use for the background. I really love working with Le Petit Lambswool but I love the look of Wannietta's Carlina in Donegal Cottage Tweed Sock.

A big thank you to Lynn who worked today. She was supposed to have the day off but I'm not feeling well. I have a bad sinus infection. I saw the doctor yesterday and was sent for chest x-rays. Thankfully I don't have pneumonia. Beth is happy because I lost my voice - she says it's nice and quiet at home.

I was able to do some knitting and am onto the ribbing of Newleaf.

Dad and Beth had errands to do today so Lucy stayed with me.

From the stairs she can see who is coming and going.

Tomorrow is the day Boscoe arrives. I have moved my yarn upstairs to the sewing room. There is no need to tempt him on his first day here.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's Eve.

POP

Do you need some colour in your life? Take a look at the POP blanket from tincanknits.

This blanket is inspired by the bright, exciting and high-contrast graphics of comic books and American Pop Art, and my love of polka dots in general. MMMmmmm who doesn’t love a good polka dot?

Blanket can be made any size desired. When made to the gauge suggested, the squares measure approximately 6.25” square. The sample is baby blanket size, it measures 26” x 32.5”. Of course you can knit this pattern in any yarn and gauge that you like, but note that this will change the yardage requirements. POP is a fabulous project for using up colourful scraps of leftover yarn. 

The ladies from tincanknits used Noro Kureyon and Cascade Eco + for their sample.

Alex started the POP blanket using Noro Ito and Cascade Eco +.

Newleaf is growing. I have an inch more to knit on the body before doing 2" of ribbing. I think I am going to make the sleeves 4" long but will try the sweater on again when I get close to that measurement.

Unfortunately there won't be any knitting tonight. I need to put yarn away. It's only two more sleeps until Boscoe arrives and I have a feeling he is going to like playing with my yarn.

Pretty in Pink

Churchmouse Yarns reknit their Colorplay Mohair Scarf in pretty shades of pink.

Have fun playing with color—glowing, silky soft Kidsilk Haze color! Watching what comes next is so much fun. For the scarf project, we mixed four solid colors—two at a time—to create shaded color blocking. Try mixing tonal colors for ombré shading, or cross the color wheel for graphic punch! It may be impossible to stop at just one scarf project. 

Churchmouse combined 580, 687, 688 and 690 Kidsilk Haze.

This pretty mauve combination is 612, 642, 677 and 691.

The next two combinations use Rowan Cashmere Haze.

Taking inspiration from our ever-popular Kidsilk Haze, Cashmere Haze is an exquisite blend of 40% baby alpaca, 30% cashmere and 30% silk creating a fluffy, lightweight yarn which is available in a timeless range of neutrals. The white core also creates a beautiful mélange effect in our darker shades.

703, 704, 706 and 707

700, 701, 702 and 703

It's just a few days until Boscoe comes home. Beth is slightly excited. I'm not sure he has enough toys.

This is just a quarter of them. There is a closet full.

Nightshift #7

Alex blocked my latest Nightshift. This is Noro Ito 19 & 20. I love how bright this one is. At 4:30 it hit me that I hadn't taken any pictures yet. I got this one just before it was too dark.

Thanks to everyone who visited today. It was crazy. I was in the store at 7:30 to pack all our mail orders. They were finished at 10. Just in time for opening. The parking lot was full for most of the morning and our mailman had to park on the street. He was impressed that we were so busy. There were people that I didn't get a chance to talk to. If you were one of them, I am sorry. Alex, Lynn and I ran for most of the day.

It's pizza night. I'll get home just as Beth and dad are taking the pizzas out of the oven. They have decided their pizza is so good that they should be opening a pizza joint.

Spincycle sent out a newsletter with more information on the new sweater coming out by Jenn Steingass. The pattern is going to be released on January 1.

Yardage requirements (skeins of Dyed in the Wool): 36.5" bust: 1 skein; 38-59" bust: 2 skeins; 62-67" inch bust: 3 skeins 

Note: those measurements are the sweater size. Jenn recommends choosing the size 3-6 inches greater than your actual bust size.

Spincycle will be shipping us yarn on Monday and my guess we will see it by Friday. What's coming? Lots of Dyed in the Wool

-End of Summer
-Nostalgia

-Pick Your Poison

-Salty Dog
-Summer Love

-Truth Bomb

-Verba Volant

-Wallflower

Lots of amazing colours for Jenn's new sweater. I am going to be getting on an airplane in 3 weeks - the sweater would be great plane knitting.

Now it's bed time. I can barely keep my eyes open.

Boxing Day

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas day with family and/or friends.

Our cake came from Jones Bakery in Caledonia. The cake was awesome but there was a small problem. Two pieces were cut out around 2 yesterday afternoon before anyone arrived. Beth instigated it and I went along.

We laughed a lot during the game. Beth wrapped presents like Russian Dolls. There were 12 boxes within boxes - each wrapped. A pan was being passed around with dice. If you rolled doubles you got to try to unwrap the present. But before you could go at it you had to put on a hat, scarf and oven mitts. Makes it a bit harder to unwrap. The ladies went first. Then the men went. We laughed and laughed. It turns out that some people are more competitive than we thought.

Our house is mostly back to order except for the red fluff from the feather boa Beth bought for the game. It is everywhere. Upstairs, main floor and downstairs.

Every year Beth gets a puzzle from Cathy and the Christmas puzzle has been started.

Most of my day was spent knitting. I am almost to the ribbing on my sweater.

Lucy was so good yesterday. She laid in the corner for most of the evening.

It's only 6:30 and I'm thinking about bed. I should have had a nap this afternoon. Don't forget that our Boxing Week sale starts tomorrow in the store.

Newleaf

I had some time to knit in the store today and Newleaf came out. The pattern asks for 12" from the armhole division to the start of the ribbing and I am at 8". There won't be much knitting tomorrow but I should have lots of time on Thursday.

This was my morning chuckle from Twitter.

We're ready for Boxing Week. The sale starts online at 12:01am on December 26 and goes until midnight December 31. The sale will be in the store as well starting on Friday.

I was up early this morning and got my day going. My bedroom is clean. Vacuumed, dusted and all clothes have been folded and put away. Tomorrow after church we need to wash the floors and then we are ready for the crowds. Why wait until tomorrow? Lucy and dad were here for dinner tonight. Lucy always leaves hair and slobber. If we did the floors today we would redo them tomorrow.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays in case I don't get to post tomorrow.

New Colours

Blue Sky Fibers showed a picture yesterday so now I can share with you. There will be new colours of Woolstok coming in January. These colours have been ordered and as soon as they arrive at Blue Sky's warehouse they will be shipped to us.

We love Woolstok and can't wait for these addition colours.

A two-ply yarn from the highest quality Peruvian Highland sheep. Extremely soft and rich in character with excellent stitch definition.

©Jennifer Steingass

Vintersol (“winter sunshine“) is inspired by a walk in a frosty, wintry meadow. This example is made with a soft and woolly double strand of Camilla Vad yarn, which creates a lofty worsted weight that is warm yet lightweight. This design lends itself well to a variety of color combinations. Choose 3 colors of yarn or simplify and go with two. You can even fade the background of the yoke, creating a gradient, while using a light color for the motif.

You can purchase the pattern to Vintersol on Ravelry. This pattern is perfect for Woolstok - there are finished samples on Ravelry.

Construction: This sweater is a top down hybrid. It starts with a provisional cast on with waste yarn using a simple long tail cast on. No additional skills are needed for this method (called COWYAK). Several rounds are worked with the waste yarn and then the main color is joined. The stranded yoke is worked and the neckline is finished. A lifeline is inserted, the waste yarn is removed, revealing live stitches, and then the body and sleeves are worked from the provisional cast on edge. You can try it on as you go: the yoke, body, and sleeve lengths are all adjustable, as well as the neckline circumference, if desired. This sweater is worked seamlessly and in the round. 

If I keep showing Jenn's patterns it will make me pull out Newleaf and finish it. The guilt is starting to get to me.

A modern take on a classic, this pretty wool hat features diamond motifs embedded in a richly textured cabled pattern, with columns of crossed stitches that extend into the ribbed band. A great intermediate project, Rachel features a variety of interesting cable and decrease techniques. Knit in a soft, bright colour, it’s a fashionable twist on a winter wardrobe staple.

This is the Rachel Hat designed by our friend Alexis (you can purchase the pattern on Ravelry). It is knit with 2 skeins of Woolstok and the cables look phenomenal.

This nautical blessing describes that happy confluence of good fortune and the good sense to go with the flow. The simple braid pattern on the scarf has cable twists on alternating sides for complete reversibility. The cables on the cap converge neatly at the crest. Both promise smooth sailing! 

Pattern includes written and charted instructions for both beanie and scarf. 

The Fair Winds Beanie and Scarf from Churchmouse Yarns are knit in Woolstok. Knitters are afraid to use a dark colour for cables. You can see that the cables stand out in the dark navy.

Purchase the pattern on Ravelry... 

Don't forget about The Throwback. We all had fun making ours.

A day at the beach

Photos ©Stephen West

This triangular shawl begins with a tiny triangle at the center of the shawl. Parallelograms are stacked on the three sides of the triangle hence the name Trianglegram. Each parallelogram shape is knit one at a time while being attached to the previous sections for an entirely seamless project. Repeat the stripes until you are ready to bind off. The small size features four colors of West Wool Bicycle and the large multi-color size features a variety of fingering weight yarns and some fluffy suri alpaca accents. Relaxing garter stitch makes this pattern easy to knit and striking to wear.

You can purchase the individual pattern or you can purchase the ebook that will have at least 8 patterns.

The Westknits Winter e-book contains 8 new knitting accessories and sweaters. Each Friday during December and January, you will receive pattern updates in your Ravelry library as the entire collection is revealed. 

The designs range from colorful hats and cowls to large shawls and fun-to-knit sweaters. 

The e-book is available for a discounted price of 25 EUR until the end of 2019. In 2020, the e-book will be 30 EUR. 

Five 100g skeins of yarn is enough to knit the large size or dive into your stash for a fun scrappy version! 

Multi-color Version You can use as many colors as you like if you prefer to knit a more scrappy multi-color version. I used mostly fingering weight yarn, but some of my stripes are sport weight suri or merino yarns. Try holding a strand of lace weight mohair together with a fingering weight yarn for a fuzzy accent stripe.

This is a great project for over the holidays. Bring out your stash and play with colours.

We have new gradient kits from Manos del Uruguay and this time they are worsted weight. Yay! Bigger needles.

Bocados, Spanish for "little bites," celebrates the fun of colorwork knitting! These 25g mini-skeins of Alegria Grande are perfect for projects that need a bit of colour, or a small amount of many colours. 

75% Superwash Merino, 25% Polyamide  

You can buy these in a kit with 10 skeins for $80 or you can purchase individual skeins for $8.

These fingerless mitts take 3 skeins and the pattern is free on Ravelry.

When your heart says “Spring” but the thermometer says “ugh”, turn to these cute little mitts. They knit up quickly with 3 Alegria Grande Bocados, with frequent color changes to keep you entertained. When they’re done, you’ll have warm hands and a cheerful reminder of warmer days ahead.

Rainbow Road (a free pattern) is knit with 6 Bocados.

Everyone knows the Road of Life is neither a straight line nor a simple arc. It zigs and zags, it swerves and meanders. Sometimes all that keeps us going is wanting to see the next color coming around the bend. For times like that (or anytime you need a quick and cheerful project), we recommend this Rainbow Road cowl.

We have another new yarn in the store - Alpaca Merino Chunky from Estelle Designs.

I love Ravelry but I have one complaint. When you are looking at yarn thickness they go from Aran to Bulky. In my world (I know not everyone lives in it😘) Bulky would be called Chunky.

This yarn is perfect for patterns asking for Bulky. Hats, mitts, scarves, cowls and sweaters.

Boscoe went to the beach yesterday. There were a lot of sticks to play with.

Gradient

The Exordium Shawl

I saw this post on Instagram and wanted to share with you.

You can get the pattern for the Exordium Shawl on Ravelry.

Exordium means “the beginning of anything.” So, I thought it was a fitting name for my first pattern release. 

Exordium starts with just two stitches and grows into an asymmetrical triangle that drapes perfectly when wrapped around your neck and shoulders.Sections of relaxing garter stitch are paired with stripes and lace sections to keep things interesting. 

Your favorite speckled and variegated fingering weight yarns will work especially well with this design. Choose two colors with a lot of contrast or two colors that blend together – both options will be beautiful. 

Color: For this sample I used 2 skeins of Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles. 1 in the colorway Pheasant and 1 in the colorway Salty Tales.

Take a look in your stash. I'm pretty confident you have a few skeins of fingering weight that would work for this shawl.

We have new gradient kits from Urth Yarns.

For those who like to have fun transitions and stay within the same colour at the same time.

Merino Gradient Kits from Urth Yarns are the perfect way to create beautiful projects with interesting fades. Each kit comes with four 50g skeins dyed in the same tones to make a perfectly blended project, and includes a pattern for the Garden Trellis Shawl

The yarn is fingering weight, 100% superwash merino and each skein is 200m.

This kit would be great for a Hitchhiker.

We used gradient kits for our shawls (Cathy's is above and mine is below).

Boscoe had a bath yesterday. I can't tell if he was happy about this. Lynn commented that I haven't shown many Boscoe pictures lately. The trainer sends a few pictures a week. This past week Boscoe visited a children's centre. I didn't want to share pictures of kids that I don't know.

He is doing well at training but there have been time outs. The trainer says that he is very confident and likes to do things his way. Great - another stubborn dog.