Happy Monday

It was a beautiful day at the store so I took yarn outside for pictures. Here are new kits for the Temperance Shawl.

Today was about bright colours. You can see that I was partial to Lettuce - the lime green. There is a lot of teal as well.

Don’t forget to sign up on Malabrigo’s blog so that you can win prizes. 

This is from an email that Malabrigo sent out today

Also at the end of each segment we will have raffles among all knitters who posted about the knit along either on Ravelry or Instagram AND sign up for the KAL online. 

Please DO NOT FORGET to sign up if you want to be eligible for the raffles. 

I started the second triangle for my ADVENTurous Wrap.

I needed easy, mindless knitting this afternoon. There wasn’t a lot of sleep last night. We were up at midnight to see if we could log in to register dad for his COVID shot. Nothing at midnight. Nothing at 2:30 or 6:30 when I woke up either. When I woke up at 8 we were good to go. Dad’s appointment is on Saturday. He is excited!! One step closer to getting to Myrtle Beach.

Beth is watching TV and is gently telling me to hurry up so that we can start The Voice. She even wound a skein for me while I was writing. It’s time to go!

Creative Linen

A customer came to pick up her copy of 4 Projects - Creative Linen this morning and wanted to make the Bree Shawl.

This oversized wrap has a slanted shape which is accented by the dramatic colour block pattern. Knitted in garter stitch throughout, this accessory uses five colours of the beautifully cool Creative Linen.

With a crisp look but a soft feel, Creative Linen is a winner for spring and summer knits. Great stitch definition means that lace or texture patterns really shine in this yarn, which comes in a fresh colour palette of brights and tonals. With a mixture of 50% linen and 50% cotton, Creative Linen will wear and wash beautifully, making it an essential choice for warmer days.

We are missing one colour of Creative Linen (the darkest beige) but improvised with this by adding in the dark denim.

I like this combination of Creative Linen better than Rowan’s - sorry Rowan. The colours are 

620

650

621

624

635

Beth helped again in the store this morning but I’m putting an end to that. Today it cost my 4 skeins of Dyed in the Wool and another Addi needle. She isn’t happy with her current knitting. She is stuck in green and wants something ‘more fun’. She’s got it. Then she decided at 12:30 that she needed to go home. Her yarn was calling her. 😘

Here is my ADVENTurous Shawl so far. The first triangle is almost finished.

The kettle has boiled and it’s time for tea and knitting.

Happy Rowan Day

Beth has been busy knitting on her scarf. She’s been complaining that she was stuck with turquoise for a long time but the lime is coming and then she’ll be onto other colours.

I made it to the sixth colour on my ADVENTurous Wrap. One more colour after this and then I’ll be able to start the second triangle.

The Rowan magazines are available online.

A little tip when looking at the website. On the right hand side there is a box with a drop down 

You can choose how you want the products to sort.

We received one box from Malabrigo today - not the one with Sock. That should come tomorrow.

We have new colours of Rasta.

Back to my tea and knitting!

Hue Loco

More patterns for Sirdar Cotton DK are now online. I could have used this cardigan today. I wore a light top thinking it was going to be warm out. The wind was really cold at the store.

Lynn reminded me today that I haven’t blogged about Hue Loco. We have Phyllis Sock on sale right now. It was supposed to end tomorrow but I will extend it to Saturday evening. Don’t forget to make an account on our website and accept marketing. You will receive email newsletters about sales. This is a very short newsletter. This newsletter is different than the monthly newsletter that I have been writing for years. That newsletter will be going out next week.

Diana is knitting our store sample of the Temperance Shawl. Here is the yarn wound before starting.

The shawl looks great. I am going to cast on April 1 and join the KAL.

My ADVENTurous Shawl is growing. Colour number five is joined in. I’m glad I took out my original attempt and started again. 

I’m pretty sure my triangle won’t be big enough so I have add another Party of Five kit. Two skeins will be added to the end of this triangle. I will use two other skeins for the second triangle. 

There hasn’t been a lot of knitting on this project because there is a secret project on the needles. I can’t share yet - I have to wait until April 9th. I will say that the yarn is so nice to knit with and I think everyone will like it when it’s available.

The Great Escape

Isabell Kraemer has a new pattern knit in fingering weight yarn. You can purchase the pattern for Laila on Ravelry.

Laia is a sister pattern to Eula (published March 2019) and is a stockinette, buttonless version. It is worked seamlessly from the top down with a cute lace pattern around the top of the yoke. First some short rows are worked back and forth to create a higher back neck and then the yoke is worked in rounds top down to sleeve separation. Some last short rows are worked to finish the yoke shaping right before sleeve stitches are placed on hold, then the body is worked down to the ribbing. For both sleeve length options, held stitches are placed back on the needles to knit the sleeves top down to the cuffs. No additional finishing required.

Photos © Isabell Kramer.

A new magazine is coming from Rowan on Monday

Featuring garments and accessories, these knits are suitable for children aged 3-12 years

My knitting is growing slowly. Tough Love Sock is a great yarn to knit with.

Beth and Boscoe went to the dog park yesterday morning. He wasn’t the cleanest boy when he came home but he was very tired. It’s a good thing he got some rest. Dad and Lucy came for dinner and we were getting ready to eat when I saw that the front door was open. Boscoe was gone. Beth and dad ran out and called and called and he came running. Beth said he was moving fast to come home. Thank goodness all the recall training he had worked.

Over the next few weeks I might not blog every day. It will depend on how I am feeling. My body is getting better every day but I am having a hard time sleeping. I’m going to try blogging during the day and not at night but plans don’t always work out how you want them to.

Grevillea Shawl

I was able to knit a few rows today and it felt good.

I went back to my Party of Five kits and Ambah O’Brien’s Adventurous Wrap. Garter stitch was an easy thing to knit. I am going to do the first triangle in this kit and the second triangle will be my other kit. As I am getting to the end of my skein I am fading in the next colour. One fade could be ten rows. One fade could be four rows. It just depends on how much yarn I left. If my triangles aren’t big enough (which I suspect is going to happen) I am going to use a third kit to do a few rows on the end of each triangle. That is a problem for the future.

Speaking of Ambah - she has a new pattern called the Grevillea Shawl (pattern purchased on Ravelry).

Gorgeous Grevilleas, a flower native to Australia, come in a wide array of colours. When I was choosing a colour palette for this design, I found myself drawn to light to dark pinky-reds. The airy lace pattern and range of colours remind me of the spiky, loopy flowers of these beautiful bush flowers. The Grevillea Shawl was designed to feature the ten colours of a Koigu Pencil box mini-skein set, teamed with a main colour. Alternately this will knit up beautifully in a single colour: solid, speckle or gradient. An airy, asymmetrical triangle, this shawl will be fun to knit and lovely to wear all year round.

This is a must on my future to knit list. I love Ambah’s shawls and I have some colour combinations in mind. I will try and get pictures tomorrow.

Evolution Sock from Estelle is now available online. 

With its fun bold stripes and subtle speckle effects, Evolution sock is a great way to make a statement for your feet! It's great for socks, as well as other accessories - shawls, hats, fingerless gloves or even a scarf!

A few more rows of knitting and then it’s bed time. I’m going to spend some time in the store tomorrow. 

Adventurous

Meet the new colours of Highland. Across the top is Topaz. From the left - Black Cherry, Peacock and Hyacinth.

I put together a few combinations for Andrea Mowry’s Throwover or Throwback.

Any three of the four new colours would look great in the sweater or cardigan. I used Silver Mist for the background but Oatmeal would be great too. Or use all four of the new colours - anyone of them would make a great main colour.

Photos © Andrea Mowry

I started a new project last night. Ambah O’Brien’s ADVENTurous Wrap (pattern purchased on Ravelry).

The Adventurous Wrap is made up of 2 top-down triangles. They are both knit first, ending with half of the last row bound off and the other half held on a set of needles. These stitches are then bound off together to join the triangles and create the wrap.

I am using two Party of Five kits to start the shawl. Ambah changes colours every few rows but I don’t want to do that because of the endless number of ends to sew in. I am going to knit the first two mini skeins until I run out. Then I will do the next two and continue doing this until the skeins are finished. I think that my triangles will end up bigger. We’ll see what happens as I start knitting. The next triangle could be the same two kits in reverse order or it could be two new kits. We’ll see what happens. It might not sound inviting but I think you will see my plan as I get to the next skeins. Unfortunately I’m ripping out what I did last night. When I was carrying the yarn up the side I held it in front - I know better than that. Since there wasn’t a lot completed it’s better to take it out and start again rather than look at it and be mad as I’m knitting the rest of the shawl. 

The pattern is very easy to follow and easy to memorize. Once you get going there are only two rows to the pattern. One has increases and one is just knit across.

Take a look at Instagram and see the beautiful shawls. There is one in the top posts that is the colours of Andrea Mowry’s Find Your Fade. It is gorgeous!

I will try really hard to get the Party of Five kits online tomorrow. We were busy today with box two from Harrisville and box two from Hedgehog. Box three from Hedgehog should be coming tomorrow.