True Colors

Alex and I were putting away Theme Packs from Emma’s today and it got me thinking about patterns. This is True Colors from Melanie Berg (pattern purchased on Ravelry).

Let your true colors shine in this eye-catching shawl!

Whether your style is bold, elegant, playful, or simply unique - you’ll find this asymmetrical triangle shawl to be the perfect playground for your personality.

It knits up to a generous size, with a simple lace pattern creating a stunning scalloped effect. Eyelet stripes separate gradient color bands, which become the accent color when the scheme is reversed near the end.

The pattern came out in 2019 and was originally knit in yarn from Lorna’s Laces who is no longer in business. You need one full skein of fingering weight and ten mini skeins. 

Diana knit the shawl for the store and I wish I knew where it was. These are old pictures. Lynn might remember where we put it. The shawl is amazing!

I didn’t have time to see if I could match these colours (I will try tomorrow) but I did have a few minutes to put together combinations using a skein of Practically Perfect Sock and a Theme Pack.

This is That 70’s Kit with a skein of Fun Guy. The top picture has the skeins in the order from the kit. I rearranged them below. You can use the skeins in whatever order you like.

Isn’t She Grand with Sprout

Eyes on the Horizon with Whisper.

Eyes on the Horizon with Jackie O.

There are many more combinations.

Sweetheart with Beach Please

Slice of Sunshine and Whisper

I’m dog sitting tonight. Friends are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary tonight. Dad and Beth have joined them for a dinner cruise on the Grand River.

We’re finally heading back to the cottage this weekend. Dad, Beth and the dogs are leaving tomorrow morning and I’m leaving tomorrow after work. Hopefully I find some time to sit and knit because that hasn’t been happening. 

Two Skeins of Fingering Weight

Casapinka has a new shawl using 2 skeins of fingering weight yarn. You can purchase the pattern for Sharon’s Pre Game on Ravelry.

This is a boomerang shawl. You gotta do this pattern repeat a few times to memorize it and then you’ll be fine.

These are the Flying Foxtail Socks from Stephen West (pattern purchased on Ravelry).

Choose two colors of fingering weight sock yarn to knit these top-down socks. The cuff begins with 1x1 ribbing followed by a beautifully flowing two-color brioche pattern. This meandering brioche motif flows down the leg and onto the top of the foot. The remaining part of the leg is knit in garter stitch. The bottom of the foot is knit in stockinette stitch for a comfortable smooth fabric. You can easily customize the length of the leg and foot to fit your foot size. Select your circumference with five sizes to choose from and cast on these elegant socks!

Photos © Stephen West

On yesterday’s post I showed the new colour of Practically Perfect Sock called Christmas Sprinkles. We only have one skein left but more will be arriving at the beginning of August. You can email me to reserve a skein or two.

It’s time to hit Publish. The Showcase Showdown is about to start.

Baking

Mr. UPS came this afternoon with our box from Emma’s. This is the July Crazy Beautiful Color.

This is Christmas Sprinkles. Customers have been asking for Christmas sock yarn to start working on gifts. I took pictures of our skeins because they are slightly different than the stock photos from Emma’s.

We received some new colours in Practically Perfect Sock. I spent the afternoon getting the skeins back in colour order and updating the website so that it is in colour order.

Here are the seven new colours. From the top

Pure

Briar Rose

Thai Tea

Zuni

Harbor

Not the Moss of Me

Silver Lining

Dad and Beth are off to Little Britain tomorrow. We are doing an arena there and it is pour day. It is a custom that dad brings baked goods for everyone working on site on pour day. Beth did a lot of the baking this afternoon and dad made muffins after dinner.

Can we share your treat dad/grandpa?

The Best Laid Plans

I was going back through posts and realized that I totally forgot to post about Laine Magazine 21.

Laine 21, Harvest Sun, is filled with beautiful and practical summer knits featuring interesting stitch patterns, engaging techniques and lovely details. The serene photos depict a balmy summer day in the countryside, amidst blooming gardens and golden, sun-drenched fields.

Designers featured in this issue: Fiona Alice, Jenny Ansah, Audrey Borrego, Soraya García, Kaori Katsurada, Irene Lin, Faïza Mebazaa, Paula Pereira, Julia Wilkens and Griselda Zárate.

Issue 21, Summer 2024, includes:

• 148 pages
• 11 knitting patterns (both charts and written instructions provided): 4 sweaters, 2 cardigans, 2 tops, 2 shawls and 1 pair of socks
• an interview with Kendall Ross (@id.knit.that), who has turned her knitting into a unique art form. Kendall’s wearable art pieces draw inspiration from her experiences as a young American woman.
• an article about the Irish knitting education initiative Wool in School, which is committed to increasing awareness of wool and teaching children to fall in love with knitting
• Jeanette Sloan’s column Fibre Talk, where she chats with April Tang, the co-founder of Shangdrok, a Taiwanese/Tibetan company specialising in traditional hand-spun yarn and handmade felt
• Five Ways by our regular writer Päivi Kankaro, where we learn about the not-so-hidden power of colours and how to use them in our knitting projects
• Where I Knit: A regular piece that pictures people knitting in their favourite spot. In this issue, we meet Emilia Bergoglio, who knits in the park of a shrine near their home in Tokyo, Japan
• seasonal recipes to inspire your summer cooking
• book reviews.

I was in the store at 8am because Bell was coming to fix the phone. They arrived at 10. I love the 8am-noon time slot so you have to sit around waiting but at least he came and the phone works again. While I was there I worked on my fall Rowan order. I believe that we will see the books and yarn at the beginning of September. I can’t share yet but as soon as I can I will. This afternoon I was on dad duty. I took him to the General for his speech therapy. While he was there I took 10 boxes to Good Shepherd. They were grateful for more clothes and three boxes of yarn. After his therapy we visited one of their job sites and then I took him for ice cream because he did good in therapy.

Last week I mentioned that we put an offer on a house that was accepted. There were some conditions and the home owners received another offer with no conditions a few days later. We couldn’t take our conditions off so we lost out on the house. This all happened at 9pm on Friday evening. I was upset/mad/frustrated but I’m over it now. It wasn’t meant to be so now we are looking again. 

We are going to see more yarn from Spincycle next week - Levitate Dream State. I can’t wait!!! This makes me smile.

Fred wants/needs Boscoe to play with him.

Happy Canada Day

The July Crazy Beautiful Color from Emma’s should be arriving tomorrow.

We had a fireworks show close to home last night. Beth and I enjoyed it but Fred is terrified of fireworks. Boscoe and Jackson couldn’t care less - they were sleeping on the couch. Fred was beside dad shaking. 

Today was a lazy day at my house.