Family Day

Kathy was in today with her Shift. The colours are awesome. Kathy isn't loving it and is threatening to rip it back and start again. I begged and begged for her to leave it. I hope I convinced her to block it first before frogging. Maybe she will like it better after blocking.

Dyed in the Wool
Melancholia
The Family Jewels
Deep Bump

I was looking on Ravelry this morning and found some great patterns for Erika Knight Studio Linen. The yarn is on sale - don't miss out. The colours are beautiful and the yarn is amazing!

An edge to edge bracelet length sleeve cardigan knitted in three different eyelet stitch patterns. It is worked from the bottom to the top with K1,P1 rib edges, shaped under the arm to give an elegant extended sleeve and short row shaping at the shoulders. The fronts meet at the centre back neck. The sleeves are picked up from the armhole and worked towards the K1,P1 cuff.

Sundowner is designed by Sarah Hatton.

This is Minaret.

A simple ‘T-shaped’ sweater inspired by traditional stitch textures. Worked in the round to the armholes, then worked in rows. The sleeves are picked up and worked in the round to the cuff.

A V-neck sweatshirt inspired sweater knitted from the bottom up with an extended armhole shape for comfort and style. The V-neck is worked with an integral K1, P1 rib and finished with a three-needle cast-off at the shoulder. The sleeves are picked up and worked from the armhole to the deep rib cuff.

You can purchase the pattern for Medina on Ravelry.

We purchase our Knitter's Pride needles from a company in BC called N. Jefferson. They are sending us a set of interchangeable needles for our Food Drive Basket. Thank you!

This Monday (February 17) is Family Day in Ontario. The store will be closed and we will be open again on Tuesday morning at 10am.

It's their last day together for a bit.

February Sale

Our good friend Fiona Ellis has a new pattern available on Ravelry. Meet Middlebeck.

An elegant, classic V-neck cardigan with a flattering A-line silhouette, featuring intriguing cables which move from one pattern to another to form an eye-catching yoke - a cable knitter’s dream to make and wear. 

Cable patterning is offered both charted and line-by-line instructions.

Fiona used a fingering weight yarn for the cardigan. It would look amazing in Biches & Buches Le Petit Lambswool.

Erika Knight's yarns are on sale for the month of February. Her yarns are gorgeous but Erika has decided to go in a different direction and we won't don't know the future of the yarns.

85% is recycled rayon-linen fibre, sorted from selected wastage and regenerated using the eco-friendly hydrolysis method. Blended with 15% premium natural linen, these fibres are twisted and dyed by a specialist Italian spinner in Biella to produce a unique yarn with a dry hand feel and subtle sheen.

Studio Linen and Churchmouse's Sleeveless Slipover make a great combination.

You can purchase the pattern in the store or on Ravelry.

This style is so versatile, we all wanted different lengths. So here you have it—cropped, hip, tunic, and dress lengths. Or any length you’d like! It’s quite simple to customize your Slipover—for your personal style or body type, as a long layer with side vents, or as a short topper over a tee, to be dressed up or down. 

We designed eight different sizes and four different lengths in a variety of summery fibers. There are so many beautiful textures and fabrics and colors to play with. You might want to knit a few and mix it up!

We have this chart hanging in the store to make it easier to find out how many skeins you need.

From Erika Knight

The catalyst for creating my own yarn collection was to support the British heritage of textile mills and to promote native sheep breeds.  

From fleece to finished yarn in less than 50 miles, Wool Local is both authentically British and environmentally sustainable. Starting at the British wool auction in Bradford, the wool is scoured, combed, spun, dyed, steamed and hanked in the county of Yorkshire. 

An intimate blend of luxurious Bluefaced Leicester and hardwearing Masham, in a fine 4ply weight, this is a truly local wool, with its roots in the heartland of British textile manufacturing.

See Wool Local patterns on Ravelry.

Home grown luxury. 

Supremely soft, subtly sheeny and deliciously sumptuous; the wool of the Bluefaced Leicester is Britain’s most luxurious fibre. 

With its fine, dense yet lightweight fleece, due to the nature of its tightly purled wool, the noble Bluefaced Leicester produces some of the finest commercial demi-lustre wool in the world. Often considered the “cashmere of British wools”, it it naturally my fibre of choice for creating the best of British wool yarns. 

Wool is naturally soft, comfortable and sustainable, making it the ultimate fibre for the hand knitter.

See British Blue patterns on Ravelry.

I'm very early tonight. After work we are going to The Works for dinner and then it's a busy TV night. The Masked Singer followed by Lego Masters. I didn't know about this show but Alex mentioned it today. She is a Lego geek and I'm a writing that in a very good way. I loved Lego when I was a kid.

Wool & Honey

Yesterday I showed the new Uneek Sock Christmas sock kit. There were 4 more kits in the order. They are all available in the store and on the website.

My right hand hurt when I got home last night. I spent way too much time updating the website yesterday. And it's only going to get worse. I need to start working on the fall Rowan. Everything except Rowan Magazine #66 has been shipped and will be in the store on August 1. Here's a little teaser.

Rowan Cashmere Haze

Wool Local is here. We've been looking at fingering weight sweaters on Ravelry. 

Photo ©Andrea Mowry

I think Wool & Honey from Andrea Mowry is the winner.

Meet the five new colours from Mrs. Crosby for fall. These skeins are all Train Case.
Tango

Texas Two Step

Electric Slide

Waltz

Seungmu

Mr. Canada Post came in this morning with three huge boxes. Our needle felting supplies are here.

The needles are sold 7 to a pack in a cute tube.

There is a big box for Beth - she is going to be so excited. She needle felted an aquarium. I don't have a picture of it finished but here is a work in progress. It is time for her to get back to her needles. It's a great way to get out your frustration.

The evening got away from me. We watched Big Brother and I finally finished Clue #2. There won't be any knitting tomorrow night because we are having dinner with friends. When Beth and I were younger we played competitive fastball. Very competitive. A group of us are getting together along with our parents. Our parents never missed a game or a tournament and it will be great to see everyone again. 

Boxes

Today was a day of boxes. Lynn and I packed 14 boxes to go out this morning. Then Nick (Mr. Canpar) brought 2 boxes, Mr. FedEx brought 2 boxes and Mr. Canada Post brought 2 more.

We're hearing a lot about Christmas in July. We have new Uneek Sock Kits in a special Christmas colour. It is limited so don't wait too long.

The Uneek Sock Kit range is hand dyed, full of vibrant colours and soft to the touch. Each kit is individually boxed, and contains two pre-wound matching 50g balls

We have been asked about yarn that looks like Sock Monkeys. We finally have some from Estelle Designs.

The yarn is 50% acrylic, 40% wool and 10% nylon and is worsted weight. 18-20 stitches = 4" in stocking stitch. It is perfect for socks, slippers and kid's sweaters.

We just added more colours of Jawoll Superwash to the store (and I have started adding them to the website). The balls are 50grams - 75% superwash and 25% nylon. These are perfect for colourwork patterns asking for fingering weight yarn. Lynn uses hand dyed yarn for the body of her socks and then the Jawoll Superwash to give the socks some pop in the toes and heels.

Jawoll - the sock wool classic, tried, tested and approved for many years - includes heel re-inforcement yarn to strengthen heels and toes to lengthen the life of your socks!

We have two brand new colours of Erika Knight's Studio Linen.

The Sundowner Cardigan is a great pattern for Studio Linen.

My gardens are loving our weather. Not too hot. A bit of rain.

Now a few hours of knitting. I need to finish Clue #2 of my Perfect Blend MKAL.