Out of Commission

I’m good but I’m going to be out of commission for a few days. I wasn’t feeling well yesterday and had a terrible night. I ended up in Urgent Care this morning and now I’m waiting to have my gallbladder removed. I’m in St. Joe’s waiting for a bed. They think I’ll have a bed tonight. Surgery tomorrow or Sunday. As long as I’m not too bad I’ll continue to write. Knitting is going to be hard with my IV but the thing I really want is sleep.

Happy Canada Day tomorrow. Dad and Beth postponed the cottage until next weekend. I feel bad but they insisted. 

I’m currently in a Lazy Boy chair and I’m going to try and catch a few 💤.

Linen

We received stock of two different Linen yarns today. This is Lino from BC Garn.

Material: 100% linen
Yardage: 150m/50g
Needle: 3-4 mm
Gauge: 21 = 10 cm
machine washable 30C

Linen at its best! Lino is a shiny and at the same time a bit rustic linen yarn.

Lino is suitable for hand knitting, weaving and machine knitting. The more linen is used, the softer and beautiful it becomes.

By the way, the linen is from Italy, it is spun and dyed in Serbia. The dyes used are free of animal derivates, so that this yarn can be called truely vegan.

We also received more stock of Linello from Lang. We used one ball of Linello to knit Easy (pattern purchased on Ravelry).

Our scarf is colour 54 which is back in stock. If you want the scarf bigger then you will need 2 balls.

Shawlettes in garter stitch are my favorite: They look great in a colorful yarn, they are squishy and warm your neck, and they are so easy to knit that even beginners will enjoy making them.  

This shawlette is named “Easy” because it is just that: So simple to knit, but the biased construction and change of knitting direction will bring out the best of a multicolored yarn. It is long and skinny and can be wrapped around several times, or tied with a knot – and it uses only 459 yards of fingering weight yarn. 

Length: ca. 200 cm (80 inches), Depth ca. 24 cm (10 inches) 

You start in one corner and knit a long triangle until 50% of your yarn is used up. Then you change the direction and modularly add a second triangle (no seaming required) – and you have made a colorful addition to your wardrobe!

Diana and I talked about the needles before she knit the scarf and decided on 3.25mm. You might want to use 3.5mm - it will depend on how tight you knit. We didn’t want a loose knit for this scarf. It’s a personal preference.

A quick word about the Alpine Bloom Tee KAL. The KAL is just starting and you can join at anytime. 

The colours are finally changing.

Now it’s time to do some baking for the cottage. Dad and Beth are going up on Friday and I’m going up Saturday morning. There is no sense trying to drive up after work on Friday.

Growing

My Alpine Bloom Tee is growing. I wanted to knit all day today but there were chores to do. I need to see the next colour.

Brian Smith has a new pattern that uses one ball of Noro Tsubame. I think you can use any Noro yarn but watch the yardage - you might need more than one ball.

This shawl is worked in short row triangles in two pieces, which are joined using a three needle bind off before stitches are picked up for the borders, showing off the beautiful color changing yarn.

You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry. 

The new colours of Emma’s Suri Silk are online. 

I snapped pictures of the new colours in the Freia booth last week. Today Tina sent a newsletter with better pictures.

We will see the colours by the end of the summer.

Lucy spent the afternoon with me while dad and Beth were at a meeting. She is so dirty and smelly. Friday at the cottage is bath day.

The rain this afternoon was crazy. We had a small lake in the backyard. It went away and then we had an even bigger lake. I won’t need to worry about watering my gardens at the store for a while.

Speaking of gardens, Beth finally found time to go to Terra for flowers for the planters at home. We had pansy bowls until yesterday.

Now it’s time to knit!

Alpine Bloom KAL

Kits are available online and more colourways will be added in the next few days.

Here are the sizes and the yarn needed if you are using a handdyed sock yarn and Dyed in the Wool.

There are 9 sizes available - Finished Bust - skeins of Practically Perfect/skeins Dyed in the Wool

1 - 36” - 2/2

2 - 40” - 2/2

3 - 44” - 3/2

4 - 48” - 3/2

5 - 52” - 3/2

6 - 56” - 3/3

7 - 60” - 3/3

8 - 64” - 3/3

9 - 68” - 4/3

Here are yarn suggestions if you don’t want to purchase a kit

Main Yarn

-Emma’s Practically Perfect Sock

-Hedgehog Twist Sock and Sock

-Madelinetosh Twist Light

-SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock

If you want a solid yarn you can use Lang Jawoll or Biches & Buches Le Petit Lambswool. Please note that Lang Jawoll is thinner than the handdyed yarns. If you are using either of these yarns please look at the yardage.

Colourwork Yarn

-Spincycle Dyed in the Wool

-Zauberball Crazy

-Emma’s Practically Perfect Smalls and you fade colours

I cast my Tee on yesterday and made it to the colourwork before bed. 

I’m using Practically Perfect Sock Cally Girl with Absolute Zero Dyed in the Wool. My skeins of Absolute Zero are brighter than most of the skeins. I have enough of this colour for one more sweater. If you want these skeins please email me so I can put them away for you. I will email you an invoice.

Here are the guidelines. We will send each person who qualifies a 20% off coupon code for a future purchase when the KAL ends.

1. Yarn to be purchased at the Needle Emporium. Any purchase from today (Monday June 26th, 2023) qualifies. If you order online then we have you in the system. If you purchase in the store, please make sure that we take your email address.
2. The yarn can be any fingering weight yarn and we ask you purchase enough for the sweater. Please leave a note with your order that you are joining the KAL.
3. Wear your finished sweater into the store for pictures. We will post these on the blog.
4. If you live out of town, please have someone take pictures of you in your sweater for us to post. 
5. If you would like to share pictures while you are knitting I would love to share on the blog. Anyone who sends progress pictures will be entered into a draw for prizes. 
6. The KAL will end on October 15, 2023. This will give everyone a chance to knit at least one Tee.

Mr. UPS dropped off a box from Emma’s this afternoon. We have many new colours of Suri Silk. I’m working from home tomorrow and will get the website updated. 

Here are a few more combinations for the Alpine Bloom Tee.

Himalayan Salt ad Rosy Maple

Dusk ‘til Dawn and Cold Comfort

After Dark and Cold Comfort

Be Hoppy and Midsommar

Now it’s time to knit!

Happy Saturday

Here is a sneak peek of Rowan garments for fall. Lots of Felted Tweed and lots of Kidsilk Haze.

I had a meeting with Rowan just before leaving for the airport. I quickly snapped pictures and should have rearranged the shawl but I thought I was late. Of course I wasn’t - I was at the airport way too early but that’s me.

Before my meeting with Rowan I stopped to see the new Zauberball colours. Above and below are Starke 6. I had to hurry to make my Rowan meeting. I think these will be in the store sometime in August.

New colours of Crazy - yes that is purple!!!

Good Bye Chicago.

I received an email from Spincycle yesterday that there are new colours coming in the next few months. That means there are discontinued colours in Dream State and Dyed in the Wool. You can see them here.

All orders placed while I was away have been packed and will be shipped out on Monday. Tomorrow I will talk more about our Alpine Bloom Tee KAL. I picked my colours (I think) but I’m too tired tonight to cast on. I was heading to bed early on Thursday evening when I ran into an old friend in the hotel lobby. I haven’t seen Keely in 18 years. She owns a yarn shop in Oklahoma and started not long after I opened mine. I ended up catching up with her for 2 hours. I’m behind on sleep. 

It’s great to be home. My knitting chair is calling me.

New Yarn and Bags Part Two

This is Andrea and Nina from Atenti. They are holding a brand new fabric called Delia. I ordered Hope Baskets in this fabric. It is gorgeous. There will be more brand new fabrics coming in a month or so.

This great display was in the Blue Sky Fiber booth - Woolstok Bundles.

Acorns are coming this fall.

This cowl is knit in Woolstok. The pattern will be available this fall.

This is a new pattern using Freia Minikins. You need 2 balls of one colour and 1 ball of another.
The pattern is called Lindal Torkle by Woldten. You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry.

Here are the new colours coming from Freia for fall.

These are new sock patterns for Solemate kits. Above is Singularity and below is Polar Arc. Both patterns are from Jenny Staiman.

Lykke Colour coming this fall.

Above is the 5” set and below is the 3.5” set.

Brand new colours are coming from SweetGeorgia.

These dresses were on display.

Granny squares were everywhere.

This is the new bag coming from Della Q in October.

I have a few booths to visit in the morning and then I’m on a plane home. I don’t know if I will have time to write tomorrow but I will be back on Saturday.