Sea Glass, Mustard Seed and Wild Rose

The Cocoknits tape measures arrived today. They are so cute. 

After years of requests, we have finally made our own version of a tape measure - in Sea Glass, Mustard Seed, and Wild Rose (aqua, yellow, and pink). The bright colors will ensure you can always find it in your project bag. The metal tape inside measures both inches and cm/mm (78 in / 2 m long), and has a metal tab on the end to keep it from retracting into the body of the tape measure.

Because Cocoknits is committed to avoiding plastic wherever possible, we manufactured it from PLA, a 100% biodegradable plant fiber (similar to the Needle Gauge, but not water soluble). The absence of a locking mechanism keeps them 100% plastic-free and reduces the likelihood of breakage.

Each tape measure is packaged in a reusable linen drawstring bag to minimize packaging waste.

We are well stocked on all our Cocoknits accessories.

I put together some colour combinations for Melanie Berg’s Only Good Vibes this afternoon.

Only Good Vibes is a reminder to enjoy the good things that surround you — there are so many of them out there!

This lovely shawl is a fun collaboration, combining Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light and Hedgehog Fibers Alpaca Bouclé to make a soft and dreamy fabric in a gorgeously romantic colorway.

The design pairs garter stitch with lace sections to show what a beautiful world it is when we set aside differences to work together and lift each other up.

You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry. 

Photos © Melanie Berg

These are tosh merino light with Hedgehog Alpaca Boucle.

Aura and Method

Moonglow and Ozone. I think that this is the combination that I would make.

Calligraphy and Juniper

Star Scatter Solid and Comeback

Copper Pink Solid and Taffy. This is the combination that Melanie used for her shawl.

I have a few rows to go on the heel of my sock. The heel shaping is exactly the same as the toe shaping. It makes it easy to remember the pattern. 

Here is Helen’s sock. She is using a solid colour for the main colour and a hand dyed for the colourwork. Then she used a solid for the heels and toes. These look great. 

Afterthought Heel

The first sock is ready for it’s heel. This shows why you block when finished your knitting. My stitches aren’t lying flat and when blocked it will look a lot better.

The turquoise line of stitching is what I will remove to do the Afterthought Heel.

The waste yarn has been pulled out and the stitches are on lifelines. Now I pick them up and finish the heels. Andrea’s instructions are very clear and easy to follow. 

Deb emailed me a picture of her finished socks. Deb used Tough Love Sock in the colour Bison with Crazy 2332. They look great!!!

Finished! Enjoyed the colour work- they feel a little snug even on a 2.5 mm needle I’m usually knitting on a 2.0 or 2.25.

I am knitting my socks on 2.75mm needles and Lynn moved from 2.5mm to 2.75mm for hers.  

I borrowed this picture from Wannietta’s Instagram page. Notice how her heels and toes look a little fuzzy? Wannietta always adds a strand of Rowan Kidsilk Haze to the heels and toes to make them stronger.

I’m going to sign off and finish my heel. 

My socks are growing

I made it to the toe. The socks are enjoyable. The colourwork adds interest - I think I would be bored if I was going around and around in one colour.

I finished a surprise project tonight and will block it tomorrow. I did Andrea Mowry’s Shift in Rasta. It would have knit quicker but I made lots of notes and had to rip out some rows. There are 3 colours of Rasta and I will make kits next week (with my notes). You will still need to purchase the pattern - my notes are an addendum.

I used the new Mindful needles from Knitter’s Pride with the swivel cord. The needles are called lace tips and they are sharper than Addi needles. I would recommend them - they slide nicely and the joins were good.

Churchmouse Yarns has a new free hat pattern.

If you’re looking for a taste of zippy stripes, our free pattern features headgear for the whole family—from newborn to large grown-up! We’ve created colorways in sets of three, so you can make a fun bundle of hats that aren’t too matchy.

The Bundle of Stripey Hats are knit using one regular skein of Blue Sky Fibers Woolstok and one of the Woolstok Bundles. These little yarn clusters contain three mini hanks each of seven different colors of Woolstok (total of 21 mini hanks). Worsted-weight Woolstok is made from Peruvian Highland wool—so your caps will be lofty, soft, lightweight, and warm!

Blue Sky Fibers Woolstok: 1 full skein in main color (MC) (123 yds/112m), plus 1 Woolstok Bundle (21 mini-skeins; 3 each of 7 colors; 12 yds/10m each). 
Note: We made three hats (one each 16, 18 and 20”) in playful stripe sequences with enough left for one more hat! 

Churchmouse used a skein of October Sky with the Holiday Frost Woolstok Bundle.

Download the free pattern.

Jenn Steingass (knit.love.wool) is having a pattern sale. I don’t know how much longer it is running so don’t wait.

Holiday Pattern Sale! Receive 40% off any of my patterns. The price change will reflect automatically at checkout. Thank you for your support this year!

See all her patterns on Ravelry.

I’m heading back to my socks. I might finish the toe before bed.

Hedgehog

Today we made up kits for Andrea Mowry’s Find Your Fade. The top set is Twist Sock and below we made up a kit with Skinny Singles. 

Photos © Andrea Mowry.

All colours of Hedgehog Alpaca Boucle are online. 

Take a look at these Love Note’s on Ravelry that were knit with Alpaca Boucle. I really like the look of them.

If you aren’t familiar with Love Note, it is a sweater knit with a strand of fingering weight wool and a strand of lace weight mohair. This is Sarah’s Love Note.

Lynn and I are both very tired tonight. We packed a lot of orders today. And last night I set my alarm for midnight to make sure that the website was doing the discounts properly. I’m going to sign off and knit a few rows and then bed. 

Black Friday

Ms. UPS brought our Hedgehog boxes this morning. A lot of the yarn is already online and more will be added tomorrow.

We are well stocked on Hedgehog Minis. The colours are gorgeous.

The Knitter’s Block from Cocoknits arrived today.

First-time blockers are always amazed by the difference blocking makes to the final appearance of their knitting. After blocking, sweater parts lay flat, stitches even out, and what looked like a wild mess now behaves nicely. It’s like magic! After 20 years of teaching knitting, I’ve never grown tired of instructing my students on finishing techniques. In fact, the technique of blocking is one of my favorite things to demonstrate. I used to demonstrate blocking with pieces of carpet, but carpet scorched easily and was too thin for blocking pins to sink into. Rugs, towels and bulky blocking boards weren’t much better. Many of my students didn’t bother to block because it was such a cumbersome task. With this in mind, I set out to improve on the carpet pieces. I eventually had special tiles custom made for blocking, and the end result is my Knitter’s Block Kit.

It’s going to be a short post tonight. I have spent all day working on the website and have more work to do. We are getting ready for Black Friday.

Click here to see the sale items here. More will be appearing tonight at midnight.

30% off the price listed.

Friday November 27 at 12am EST to Monday November 30 at 11:59pm EST.

The discount will be automatic at check out.

All of these items are on clearance and are final sale only. We will not accept any returns, refunds, or exchanges on any items sold as clearance. Discount codes will not apply to clearance or sale items.

Coming Soon

Happy Hump Day. We didn’t put anything on special today because we are working on Black Friday/Cyber Monday. We’ll have more information on this in tomorrow’s post. Also, watch your inbox because a newsletter is going out tomorrow. I have been saying for two weeks that I need to finish the newsletter - tonight is the night.

I think we might have some Lykke Interchangeable Needles in time for Christmas. An email came from the supplier today that they were in stock and I placed an order right away. 

Ms. UPS should be delivering a box from Hedgehog tomorrow morning. I hope Lynn gets some sleep tonight. She is more excited than I am to open to new boxes.

Our Maker’s Bags from Della Q will not be arriving until January - there was a problem with the ship. You’ve heard me say that I’m not a patient person. I want mine now but it will be a happy surprise when they arrive in January. Here are some photos of the bags.

Cocoknits tape measures are making their way to us. We should see them next week.

I think the newsletter is done. I will reread it in the morning, Beth will read it over and then it will be on its way. I need to step away from the computer for tonight. I will be writing in my sleep if I don’t.