Wild Mint

I can finally share the new Soak scent with you. I’m very excited about Wild Mint. We won’t have it in the store until September, probably late September, but I couldn’t keep the secret any longer.

If you are anything like me you have a bag or ten full of fingering weight scraps. I’m always cursing a designer for making a shawl that doesn’t use all the yarn. Stephen West has a new pattern for all those part balls. 

This garter stitch cardigan is designed to showcase all of your fingering weight yarn. Hold two strands together throughout the entire project for the ultimate stash buster. The top-down construction makes the cardigan easy to try on and customize the length as you knit. This pattern is very easy to knit with simple garter stitch and ribbed edges. Dive into your stash and paint with your yarns to create the coziest scrappy cardigan.

The pattern can be purchased on Stephen’s website. 

You are knitting with two strands of yarn at time on 4mm needles. Have fun playing with your stash.

Photos © Stephen West

I spent a lot of the day knitting on Elah. I’m getting closer to the depth where I can join the fronts to the back. I plan on knitting tonight and more tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll be joining soon.

It’s Our Birthday

We opened 35 years ago in August. The actual date??? I don’t remember. It was sometime in the middle of the month but we are going to celebrate for the whole month.

On the website I have started a page called Birthday Celebration. On Sunday morning at 8am products will show up and will run until Saturday at 8pm. Then at 8am on the following day (Sunday morning) another set of products will show up.

The sale items for the first week are live. I wanted to make sure that everything was set up properly and I didn’t want to be up before 8am tomorrow.

My post today is short and sweet. Aunt Rene, Uncle Bob and our cousin Michelle came for dinner. We had lots of laughs. I have a much longer post written for tomorrow. It’s finished because it was today’s post until I decided to start the Birthday Celebration early. 

My post was a little too short so I looked at pictures from a year ago. Lynda finished our Honey Moss Shawl a year ago this week. Our sample is knit with 5 skeins of Queensland Kathmandu Aran.

During Fall & Winter, I adore wrapping up in my biggest, squishiest shawls. The Honey Moss shawl combines squishy worsted weight wool with big honeycomb cables that transition into a magnified Horseshoe lace. Once finished it begs to be wrapped up in! 

DETAILS 
This shawl is knit sideways, increasing along one edge to create an asymmetrical shawl. The first half of the shawl is cables, which then give way to lace once we have built up a larger stitch count.

You can purchase the pattern on Andrea Mowry’s website.

Now it’s time to say Goodnight.

Pattern Sale

Lynn has moved onto the sleeves on Elah. She is still deciding how long to make the body so she put it on a holder and is magic looping the first sleeve.

Isabell Kramer is having a pattern sale until Sunday. You won’t be disappointed knitting any of her designs.

You can find all her patterns on Ravelry. Remember - only her self-published patterns are on sale. 

Dad’s garden is going crazy. He counts down until the red flowers come out. He wanted me to come by this morning and take pictures because they are finally blooming.

Lucy is in her favourite place. She would live in the truck if you’d let her.

I found this picture when I was looking for something this morning. Baby Lucy. She had big ears as a puppy.

A little bit of everything

Andrea Mowry’s new pattern Alpenglow went live this morning.

Photos © Andrea Mowry

Alpenglow is like a charcuterie board, with a little bit of everything to satisfy your knitty appetite! Stranded colorwork, mosaic knitting, corrugated ribbing and more. This sweater is hard to put down, as you crave just one more row! 

This sweater is knit from the top down (meaning you can try it on as you go and add length to suit your own personal style!), beginning with the yoke. The circular yoke is adorned with a stranded colorwork motif, and then you switch to mosaic knitting that is continued thru the body and sleeves. You will separate the sleeves, placing them on hold while the body is finished all the way down to the corrugated ribbing hem. The sleeves are then returned to the needles, picking up stitches for the underarm and worked down to the cuff. The collar is picked up from the cast on edge and worked long enough to be doubled over for a hemmed collar.

You can purchase the pattern on Andrea’s website. 

If you are looking for colour inspiration, take a look at the finished projects on Ravelry.

While I don’t believe clothing needs to be gender specific, I have received many requests for more of my sweater patterns to have a “mens” version, including broader shoulders, deeper yokes and longer sleeves and bodies. My goal is to include more sizes to fit an even greater range of body types!

You can purchase the men’s version on Andrea’s website. 

Here are a few of the kits that I put together. 

You can find the kits on the website.. 

This is Jasmine who works for Spincycle. The Alpenglow that she is wearing was knit with a background colour and one colour of Dyed in the Wool - Ghost Ranch. No contrast colour. No mohair/silk blend. I love this version!! 

Elah is calling - Knit Me, Knit Me! It’s time to move to the knitting chair and get a few rows in.

Ewe Rock

Alex stopped by today with a new shawl. It is stunning! This is Ewe Rock (pattern purchased on Ravelry)

A super-sized shawl is a perfect accessory to rock this freezing winter in style.

Wrap it around your neck and keep warm on your trips out into the cold, or wrap it around your shoulders to stay cozy and warm inside.

Ewe Rock is knit top-down in one-color and two-color brioche and garter stitch in a stunning four-color fade.

The tassels accentuate the star shape, but are of course entirely optional.

Use a combination of semisolids and speckled yarn in four colors to create your personal fade. When choosing colors, make sure that each skein you chose picks up some of the colors of the previous skein. This will give you a soft and smooth fade.

Alex used Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles

-Urchin

-Cereal

-Dijon

-Wish

Lynn and I did some rearranging today.

Edition 3 from Schoppel Wolle is hanging now. The yarn was in a basket and this type of ball doesn’t like baskets. They fall apart and start to look sloppy. This also makes it easier to see all the colours.

What else did we do? We made up kits for Andrea Mowry’s new sweater that is coming out tomorrow. The kits for Alpenglow will go live at 9am tomorrow. 

Productive Day

Elah has been joined.

It’s not a great picture (I was taking it quickly so I could finish my post) but I wanted to show that I am finally making progress.

Are you following Spincycle Yarns on Instagram? They shared a few sneak peeks of the new Andrea Mowry sweater coming out on Thursday.

Photos © Spincycle Yarn

I was looking at the sports weight yarns that we have in the store and decided that we needed one more. This is Cascade BFL. Cascade calls it a dk weight but if you look at the tension it ranges from sport to dk weight.

Spun from British-sourced Bluefaced Leicester wool, Cascade BFL is a DK-gauge, woolen spun yarn. Long-stapled silky fibers work up effortlessly into garments and accessories. Available in 25 colors, Cascade BFL offers a generous 262 yds/100 gram hank.

DETAILS

• 100% Bluefaced Leicester Wool
• Weight: 100 g (3.5 oz)
• Approx. Yardage: 262 yds (240 m)
• Knitting Needle Size: US 5 - 6 (3.75 - 4.0 mm)
• Knitting Gauge: 22 - 24 = 4" (10 cm)

The yarn should arrive tomorrow.

I spent the day with the dogs and had a very productive day.

Malabrigo Ultimate Sock is now available online. The yarn left Miami today so we should see it next week.

Cascade Anchor Bay has finally been added to the website.

Anchor Bay is an easy-care yarn created in Superwash Merino wool and cotton. It has a wide-range of earthen colors and a supple, light-weight texture.

Anchor Bay has great stitch definition plus ultra-soft making it perfect for accessories, summery tops, children's garments, and baby blankets.

You can order Cascade BFL online.

In between this I made a batch of brownies and paid bills online. I did a few orders and joined Elah. Phone calls were made and emails answered. A lot of chores that needed to be done but there wasn’t time to do them.

It was a productive day!!!