Entertaining and Soothing

Meet Stephen West’s Dustland Shawl. We used 3 skeins of The Fibre Co Arranmore Light for our sample. Our colour is Ailis. We also knit the shawl on 4mm needles, not the 4.5mm that Stephen suggests. We didn’t want the shawl to be too loose because you will lose the pattern.

This top-down shawl features several easy knit purl textures for an entertaining and soothing project. Garter stitch frames the wingspan edges and a crisp I-cord bind off finishes this top-down shawl for a crisp clean look.

You can purchase the pattern on Stephen’s website.

Inspired by the breathtaking scenery of Ireland, Arranmore Light yarn is spun in a mill that traces its roots to the homespun tweed industry of 19th century County Donegal. This DK-weight yarn blends cashmere and silk with fine Merino wool to create an authentic tweed yarn in a colour palette reminiscent of the wild Irish coastlands for makers who appreciating the best of luxury and tradition.

Yarn is being moved around and we are trying to hang skeins so that you can see the colours better.

MadTosh Wool + Cotton and Primrose Roan. 

The Roan will look better next week. This slatwall was installed when we renovated the house. A few boards are loose so dad needs to add some screws. Then we move the hooks to the edges.

A customer asked me to send some pictures of yarn to make Andrea Mowry’s Find Your Fade. Lynn and I took one of my Find Your Fades outside for pictures.

The shawl has been hiding out in the store - I need to take it home and wear it. We have a kit made up in the store so I’ve added it to the website.

Here is another of my Find Your Fades - this kit is online as well.

Make sure you check your inbox - a newsletter went out this morning. 

Kits for Stephen West’s MKAL will be live at 8pm.

Find Your Fade

This happened this afternoon. I have been putting together colours for Find Your Fade for customers and I need to make another one. You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry.

I was winding the first colour (Villian) when I looked down to see I already had a part ball in the sewing room. 😂 I’m using the old ball and will have a full skein wound for another day. Or if someone needs Villian I can send the wound ball.

This is my first Find Your Fade. Villian is the second colour in this one.

This is Churchmouse’s Striped Linen Stitch Wrap. You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry. I was looking for something on the blog and ended up on a post from September 2017. I thought I would share pictures of this shawl again - it is gorgeous.

Our fervent love of linen stitch continues. The eight-color wrap and four-color scarf take on a convincingly woven look. Knitted length-wise, with knotted self-fringe, they look like they’re right off the loom. The ‘wrong’ side has a more knitterly seed stitch look that’s gorgeous, too. Seemingly random striping sequences are quite forgiving—if you run out of a color, just throw in another! 

Here are a few more colour suggestions from Churchmouse.

Moor
2 skeins each 145-Treacle, 196-Barn Red; 1 skein each 153-Phantom, 186-Tawny, 172-Ancient, 175-Cinnamon, 157-Camel, 190-Stone

Meadow
2 skeins each 173-Duck Egg, 161-Avocado; 1 skein each 190-Stone, 184-Celadon, 197-Alabaster, 165-Scree, 177-Clay, 185-Frozen

Coast 
2 skeins each 159-Carbon, 195-Boulder; 1 skein each 191-Granite, 172 Ancient, 194 Delft, 190 Stone, 177 Clay, 197 Alabaster

I love Coast. Lynda needs a new project - this could be it.

Now it’s time for bed. Who am I kidding? I need to do a few more rows before bed.

I almost hit ‘Publish’ and then realized that I didn’t mention the yarn for the Striped Linen Stitch Wrap. It is knit in Rowan Felted Tweed. I’m going to let you in on a little secret - there are new colours of Felted Tweed coming in October.

Happy Easter

Beth and I hosted Easter dinner tonight. Everyone is gone and the dishwasher is busy. This is going to be a quick post - I'm tired and my bed is calling.

Great news. FlexiFlip needles in 2.5mm should be arriving late this week. Lynn had a lady in last week who used her 2.25mm for three pairs of socks and loves them.

April is here and we need to start finalizing our booth for the Knitters Frolic.

Find Your Fade kits are coming.

We have bright, spring colours and darker colours for the fall. This is just a small sample of what I've been playing with. When making the kits we tried to cover colour combinations for everyone.

Now a few minutes of knitting and then bed. I'm sleeping in tomorrow!

I want!

Diana finished Brickless (pattern purchased on Ravelry). She steam blocked the shawl and it grew slightly. I really like it this long (I wrapped it twice around the mannequin). If you don't want the length, you can finish whenever you want. Keep in mind that it will grow a bit.

The yarn is Girandola from Louisa Harding and we suggest 3.75mm for the shawl.

Linda finished her Find Your Fade. I WANT!!! She used Hedgehog Skinny Singles. 

Dragonfly
Wish

Dragonfly (it's the same colour but the skeins were so different that it looks like two different colours)

Truffle

Vengeance

Hurricane

Raven

I think that I want to combine some of these colours with Raku - a new colour from our last shipment. The next shipment should be leaving Ireland any day and there are Potlucks which might work as well.

I've ordered interpretations Volume 5 and it should be in the store early next week.

Interpretations Vol. 5 is a special anniversary collaboration between Joji Locatelli and Veera Välimäki. Once again these best friends from opposite sides of the world created 12 wonderful patterns for you to enjoy.

 Tree Seeker is one of the amazing patterns in the book. See them all...

I received an update today on the yarn for the Gradient Lapghan. It is supposed to arrive in Toronto today. My supplier will need to unpack it all and then repack to ship. My guess is that we won't see it until Monday or Tuesday. The yarn has been added to the website. I have a feeling there won't be time when I'm in Myrtle Beach to be playing with the website.

The four grey tones are not in the shipment. They will be arriving by the end of March. Don't worry. You won't need these until June.

The new Hand Painted Linen from Trendsetter is really nice to knit with. It has a sheen and feels closer to cotton than linen. It is super soft in your hands. I decided to go with a 4mm needle. Nurmilintu is super simple and would make for great car knitting. It'll perfect for the plane ride.

Great Price

We have a new fingering weight yarn in the store that will work great for socks, mittens, shawls, sweaters, cardigans and vests.

Araucania Huasco Heathers
100grams
415m/457 yards
80% superwash merino wool
20% nylon

$22 a skein - you can't beat the price.

There are eight colours in the range that will show off a lace or cabled pattern beautifully.

I started this post yesterday and then the day got away from me. After work Beth and I went to spend some time with dad. It was after 11pm when we got home and I was exhausted.

Kimba is growing. A day of watching football and golf (and no work) helps.

I love it so far. One more row and I get to bring in the next colour. I considered knitting before writing but then I was afraid that there might not be a post today.

Now the go to sleep or knit debate is happening. :)

Find Your Fade

Alex just dropped off my Find Your Fade. It's blocked and all the ends are sewn in. Blocking makes all the difference. It is huge and beautiful.

I wanted to hang it on the fence for pictures but I wore the wrong boots today. I need to climb through a snow bank and I wore my good boots - not the snow boots.

My glasses are the perfect match.

This could be my next Find Your Fade. The yarn is Silk Traveler and is 70% superwash merino and 30% silk.

I'm home now after a fun evening out with my roommate from university. It's time to put my feet up and knit a few more rows on Kimba. Now that I've finished two shawls this month I'm feeling the need to finish a few more. I'm going to pull out Starting Point tomorrow night and get it finished.