LYS Day 2020

Saturday September 12 is LYS Day. This has always been a fun day in the store. This year it isn't happening in our store but we are planning something in the parking lot. It will totally be dependant on the weather but fingers crossed we will have a nice day.

This means that I need to get kits prepared.

This is Andrea Mowry's Birds of a Feather. It is a beautiful shawl and I spent some time today retaking pictures of our kits. I also added a few new colours.

Birds of a Feather will be one of the garments on display for LYS Day.

You can purchase the pattern on her website. Photos © Andrea Mowry

The shawl is knit with a single ply fingering weight yarn and a lace weight mohair/silk blend.

We're still working out some details but I wanted you to know so that you can plan.

Our parking lot will be blocked off (there is parking in the empty lot beside the store) and we are going to set up a Knitters’ Fair booth outside. Our knitters have been busy and we have many, many beautiful samples for you to see. We’ve been busy making up kits for these garments. What else will be for sale?

-Andrea Mowry has a new pattern being released on September 10 and we will have kits
-Rowan magazines for fall 2020
-J Hendry bags
-Namaste bags at super deals
-Soak Wash and Hand Sanitizer
-Cocoknits accessories
-Mystery Grab Bags
-Knox Mountain Shawl Cuffs

I will post more over the next few days.

A newsletter went out this afternoon and for some reason I have a lot of bounces. You can view it here if it didn’t make it to your inbox.

My face masks are having a nice bath in Soak. Here is a blog post from Soak on washing your masks. 

And while we’re talking about Soak, Kate Atherley wrote a great article for Modern Daily Knitting about blocking. It’s a quick read and very informative.

I’ve spent enough time in front of my computer today. It’s time to knit.

Monday Deal - August 31

This week Freia Super Bulky is on sale. One ball will make a beautiful cowl. This is the Kari Cowl and you can purchase the pattern on Ravelry. Grab some great colours and start your holiday knitting.

The hat is The Big Hat (pattern on Ravelry) and the cowl is my pattern. One ball makes either.

We carefully transition five or more colors/shades per ball making for very long, yet still dramatic color changes.

Find patterns on Ravelry.

See all the shades

Freia Super Bulky is on sale for $30 a ball from now until Wednesday September 2 at noon EST. You can order on the website and have the yarn shipped or you can pick it up.

All sales final. No returns

Boyfriend Watch Cap

Churchmouse featured their Boyfriend Watch Cap in a newsletter this week. 

Knit this cozy, deeply cuffed cap for him—and then borrow it back! It’s handsome worn turned up in a traditional nautical style, but we love it uncuffed and slouchy, too. We’ve made the ribbed cuff nice and deep so you can fold it a long way up without the wrong side of the stockinette stitch showing. Plus, this cap is a quick, satisfying knit! 

For this Boyfriend Watch Cap, we marled two colors of Rowan Felted Tweed together. One of our favorite yarns of all time, Felted Tweed is on the finer side of a DK-weight. It blends merino wool for softness and spring, with alpaca and viscose for drape, luster, and subtle stitch definition. And there are so many colors to play with!

You can purchase the pattern on Churchmouse’s website.

Have fun choosing colours. We have many shades of Felted Tweed in stock. You can double strand the same colour. Or pick two colours that are close for a slight marl. If you want to have fun try two very different colours.

I brought home the new Needle Gauge from Cocoknits and really like it.

We have other needle gauges in the store and it’s hard to tell what size the needle really is. Does the needle have to go all the way through the hole? Or is it part way? With this gauge the needle goes all the way in the hole. I tried it with different sizes of my Addis and it’s a dream.

I have 6 rows to go and then I am separating the sleeves from the body. My sweater shows why you need to block your work when finished knitting. The stitches aren’t lying very flat right now but a bath in Soak and they will look great.

There could have been more knitting today but I spent some time working on a newsletter that will go out tomorrow. I also wrote the post for our Monday Deal. I don’t want to forget that again. Now a few more minutes working on the computer and then Big Brother.

Strawberries

This beautiful cowl is knit with one skein of sock yarn and one skein of Spincycle Dyed in the Wool.

The pattern is called the Strawberry Mountain Cowl and was designed by Kay Hopkins. You can purchase the pattern on her website or on Ravelry.

Strawberry Mountain is a quick and easy cowl with simple striping and textured colorwork. 

The colorwork looks impressive but is really just slipped stitches and uses only one color per row! It’s so much fun to work the colorwork in a gradient yarn and it’s also a great way to use up stash and leftover yarn…maybe even a skein of variegated yarn against a strongly contrasting background? 

I chose to work all of the CC in garter stitch and I love the ensuing texture! 

Strawberry Mountain is worked on the bias from one end to the other, starting with just 6 stitches, and is only slightly asymmetrical. The I-Cord edges are worked as you go so there’s no finishing to do and the bind-off is also I-Cord.

Of course I put together combinations. For these I used Dyed in the Wool and Hedgehog Sock. You need one skein of each for the cowl.

For Hedgehog Sock I used
Velvet
Wish
Plump
Petrol
Purr
Clay
Melon

For Dyed in the Wool I used
Midsommar A
Rusted Rainbow B
Neveruary A
Ghost Ranch C
The Meadows D

Dad and Lucy visited the store this morning. Dad made lots of boxes. I don’t know how I’m going to get the box off the top of the pile but it makes him happy to pile them up like this.

Sleeves

I received pictures from Sarah yesterday afternoon.

Just when you think you are done a sweater and realise that the arm grew 4” when blocked! I wanted the body blocked out quite a bit to be a more slouchy fit but then didn’t fully think about how that would drop the shoulder down thus very long arms. Even long for my gorilla arms lol. Good thing I’m not scared to rip back. One sleeve done. Won’t take long for the other then I really will be done! 

This is a great reason for knitting your sleeves top down. It’s easy to fix the length if you need to.

If your pattern calls for knitting the sleeves from the cuffs up there is a trick that you can do. Cast on above the ribbing with a provisional cast on. Knit the sleeves as the pattern calls for. When your sweater is finished (blocked and sewn together) you take out the provisional cast on and knit the cuffs. You can knit the cuffs longer or shorter if you need to.

Rowan Knitting & Crochet Magazine 68 can be preordered on the website. I will have copies ready to ship out on Tuesday morning. If you order for pick up it will be available at 10:30 on Tuesday morning.

I’ve added screenshots of garments along with the amount of yarn required for the pattern to the website. You can order yarn with the book and be ready to cast on this week.

I did the same for Mode Collection 3.

Boscoe loves to lie in a chair. He spent time in different chairs at work today.

And as I am writing he is lying in his chair at home.

A visit from Lynn

Lynn needed sock yarn so she stopped by the store this morning. She brought some projects to show off.

Here is the Rock It Tee she is knitting with Pollock from Juniper Moon. This is the same pattern that I am making using a fingering weight yarn and a lace weight mohair. Lynn's stitches have a tighter look which isn't a bad thing. I really like the look and feel of her sweater. Mine definitely needs something underneath but Lynn’s won’t be see through.

Lynn left her sunglasses in the car so she is squinting. She wasn't mad.

This easy lace pattern runs from the underarm to the bottom of the sweater on both sides. Something interesting instead of side seams.

She had a couple of finished projects to show off as well. These are both from Joji - perfect for the KAL.

Lynn made me a nice list of the pattern name and the yarn she used. No, I can’t find it so I’m doing some research.

This is the Venezia Shawl. You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry or on Joji’s website. Lynn used one skein of Dream in Color Smooshy Cashmere in the colour Below Horizon.

These are some of my favorite projects to make. Special, unique, and perfect for using treasured skeins and making gifts.  

Venezia is a precious, delicate shawlette, perfect for any single skein of fingering weight yarn. Worked from tip to tip, with a reversible lace pattern and a diamond shape.  

It is framed by a gorgeous reversible diamond lace motif, and the main body of the shawl is worked in ribbing.

Lynn said that she enjoyed the pattern and wants to make it again in a semi solid yarn.

This is called Paris in Berlin (pattern purchased on Ravelry) knit with one skein of LITLG Singles in the colour Harbour.

I wanted to design a bohemian cowl that looks like a shawl, but is much easier to wear and style. 

I really like this one. Sometimes a shawl falls off your shoulders - this will always stay in place.

In my mind an email newsletter was going out tomorrow. That isn’t going to happen. You will see one in your inbox on Monday morning.

Now off to knit for a bit before bed.