I see a new project in the near future

The kits from Christel Seyfarth have arrived.  I tried to open one kit so that I could read the pattern and the packaging broke on me-not sure if I did it intentionally.  Now I might have to start the kit.  :)  Here are the colours...

...for the Malthese Shawl.

There isn't anything tricky in the pattern.  The nice thing about her shawls is that the edging is done double-this helps it to hang better.  You can also bury all your ends when sewing down the under piece.

The shawl starts at the bottom point-increasing every row.  You work back and forth until there are enough stitches to join in the round.  Then you cast on extra stitches for the steeks and start work around and around-no purling.  When you reach the required length you switch to the top border pattern.  Now comes the fun-cutting the steeks.  THIS IS NOT HARD!!  The first time I cut steeks I went down the street to East Side Marios, had a drink and then came home to cut.  The stitches will not unravel on you.  Stitches like to unravel down, not side to side.  Also the yarn is a Shetland wool so there are little fibers that catch which makes unravelling difficult.  After you have cut you pick up along the edges to do the side borders.  Piece of cake.

I took a picture of the new Spud and Chloe Outer to try and show the true colour of the yarn.  Now that I am seeing this on the screen I am not sure if it is coming out any less pink than yesterdays picture.

I have been very busy lately writing newsletters-eight in the past week.  For the store there is newsletter called Shawl Yarn Alert.  This newsletter hasn't been sent out in over two months but that is about to change.  There will be one going out on Tuesday morning and another is written to go out the following week.

The Boxes Drape Vest from Jane Slicer-Smith is progressing.  I need to work four more rows and then I will be at the second armhole.  From here I start decreasing making the rows go faster.  I'm hoping to have a Y&R marathon tonight and get some serious knitting done.

Sheep

While at TNNA I spent some time in the KnitWhits booth.  Tina always does interesting designs and she loves to use Noro Yarns.  This is the Ayako Jacket.  Fantastic.  An email came from Tina last night with information about the jacket.
Ayako Jacket

Shown here in worsted weight yarn (Noro Silk Garden colour 282), this flattering design shows off the magic of ever popular self-striping yarn. This pattern is written in 6 sizes from XS to XXL and is simple enough for a new knitter but different enough to keep an experienced knitter's interest.

Can't wait for the pattern to get here-this looks like a fun one to knit.

Here is the back neck of my Jane Slicer-Smith vest.  After doing six rows with short row shaping you then cast off 10 stitches that are cast back on the next row.  Six more rows of short rows and then back to working full rows.  This lets you fold the collar down and have it sit nicely.

I placed an order in January with Lantern Moon and it finally arrived.

We now have the Sheep Tape Measure in Beige..

..and brown.

Vest

My blog posts have been a bit lacking the past couple of weeks but that will change very soon. The fall yarns have started to trickle in and there will be major shipments arriving this week. The new colours of Silk Garden and Kureyon could be in the store tomorrow. I spoke with the Rowan distributor today and my order is set to leave South Carolina on Wednesday-watch your inbox on Wednesday for a newsletter that will preview the new magazine.

I finally made it past the first armhole on my Jane Slicer-Smith vest. The next time I take a picture of it I will put it on a longer needle so you can get a better look at it. The bottom edge isn't showing well-you increase every 20 rows so it is longer in the back than in the front.


I tried to get you a close up of the collar. It was hard with the overhead pot lights on-my shadow was in most of the pictures I took. The collar is getting wider as I work towards the armhole.

There was a long 'to do' list for today.
-Dentist to have my teeth cleaned. I am sure she was purposely trying to hurt me.
-Stop and get Beth pool cue chalk
-Bank for mom and dad
-Run into The Bay at Limeridge Mall for makeup at the Mac counter
-Car shopping. Yes, it is that time again. It is hard to believe but my Expedition is 3 years old and the lease is up at the end of October. Ford has misplaced my last two vehicles so I want to get this one ordered early just in case.

I'm moving upstairs now to watch the end of the Home Run Derby.

Eyewear-the new fashion accessory

Unfortunately it rained again yesterday so no golf. I played on the computer, napped and knit. Melo had a very bad day-fireworks. Every time we got him settled down more went off. Roko couldn't care less about the noise.

This morning I had my eyes checked. There is a new shop in Ancaster-Hanley's Eyewear. My new glasses are ordered and hopefully I will have them next week. I can totally justify another pair of glasses-they are on my face every day. You don't wear the same pair of shoes every day do you??

I received the 'look book' for the fall Rowan. This includes the pictures for all the upcoming books. I have a love for Colourscapes Chunky and there is a new magazine along with 6 new colours.

The decision on what to knit it going to be tough.

This evening was spent working on the website.
-Berroco Blackstone Tweed. This Aran weight is a fabulous tweed blend of Wool, Mohair and Angora. YUMMY. The patterns are great-tomorrows job for the website.
-Norah Gaughan magazines
-Spud and Chloe shade cards

I have Law and Order UK taping and will retire to the TV soon. My JSS vest is progressing-17" are done and at 19" the armholes start. It is knit sideways with large fronts for overlapping and pinning. There is alot of knitting but the finished product is going to be amazing.

The neverending post

It is now Saturday evening. This blog post has been started and restarted about 4 times over the past 3 days. Every time the post was done I didn't like it and hit delete.

This was written on Friday afternoon and I decided to keep it and continue on. If I continue hitting delete then there will never be another post.

After 19" I get to start my armhole shaping. Currently the front measures 12". It seems like I have been knitting forever!!

I am watching General Hospital while working. Something has been bothering me and I just figured it out. The actress who is playing Claudia used to be Carly on the show. WHY?? There has to be a million actresses out there-why bring back someone in a new part?

Back to Saturday night. There really isn't much to report. The weather is great. The store has been busy. We have a holiday on Wednesday. What more can I ask for?

Beth and I are going to watch a few movies tonight. Taken and Bride Wars.

For those wondering-no I didn't start knitting with Spud & Chloe. I have shipped off lots to my knitters though.

Socks in Fine have gone to Ann.

Rhonda picked up the yarn for the Uptown Downtown Jacket yesterday afternoon. Sweater is the yarn used for this.

Wannietta has two garments to knit. The Candy Stripe Jacket but I have changed the colours-also knit in sweater.

The Sidecar Jacket in Outer. I think she can get this done in less than a week.

I'm off to knit and watch movies. Have a good night all.

Getting ready for renovations

A small amount of progress has been made on the Jane Slicer-Smith Boxed Drape Vest. The yarn is called Zara Print Tweed. You can see that there is a fleck of colour in the yarn. In many tweed yarns (think Donegal Tweed from Tahki) the fleck is a nepp of colour that can be pulled out of the yarn. With the Zara the Tweed is a dab of colour right in the yarn. Wow, these are very technical terms I am coming up with here!!




The back room is going to be divided into two parts. This will become the cash/office area. The needles and accessories will be on the wall to the right and the cash desk will be on the left (there will be a hole in the wall).

Before we could knock a hole in the wall it needed to be braced. My dad worked on this while we were in Columbus.




The doorway is going to be closed off with a permanent wall.

I purposely took a bad picture here. There is a lot of junk still in this room that will be going in a dumpster when we start knocking out walls. This area is going to become the library.

The top part of the book shelf is going to be cut in half lengthwise. Each half will be mounted on the wall in the new library.

This is a job that my dad can sink his teeth into. He loves demolition work!! When I was very young we were at my Aunt Rene's for a Grey Cup party. She made a very big mistake by asking my dad if a wall could be taken down in her basement. At half time the wall came down.

Swing Swagger Drape

I want to start off by saying sorry for these images. My printer wouldn't let me scan into my computer at work so I took pictures and emailed them to my computer. When the pages were lying on the table there was a bad glare from the lighting so I had to hold up the pictures. Obviously my hand wasn't very steady.

These pictures are from a leaflet I picked up at TNNA about Jane Slicer-Smith's upcoming book called Swing Swagger Drape.

These are front and back of the same garment called Boxes Drape Vest. A self striping yarn was used (think Naturally Vero or Noro Silk Garden).

It can also be knit in a DK weight yarn. The same number of stitches are used so the DK version will be shorter. I have started using the new Zara Print Tweed from Filatura. The picture turned out bad (can you tell that my day isn't going well so far?) so I will try again after a few more rows are knit.

I thought that I was going to watch the US Open today but it is raining hard in NY and the golf is delayed right now. While waiting I am catching up on the Y&R. Really-could someone please do something about Sharon? From day one I didn't like her and my opinion hasn't changed.

Back at work

Bev, Beth and I have travelled to NZ a few times to visit our friend Oliver who runs Naturally Yarns. Oliver was at the trade show and drove back to Canada with us. He is here visiting a few yarn shops and then travels back to NZ on Friday. The three of them slept during the drive home leaving me some peace and quiet.

It was great getting back to the store today. I am catching up on the Y&R while writing a few newsletters.

A couple of books coming this fall that might interest you.




When I made my list of 'knitting celebrities' I forgot a couple-
Kristin Nicholas
Sally Melville
Cookie A

I was sick on Monday morning with a migraine so Beth went to the show and met with Cookie for me. At the retreat we like to have games but not everyone has our sense of humour. Beth and Cookie talked for a bit and Beth came back saying that Cookie won't have any problems with the events we cook up.

Rearranging

I had some time last week so I decided to rearrange the store again. This is the front room. Colinette Ab Fab afghans hung on the wall but the kits are no longer available in Canada so I took them down.
Merino Otto is now in the front room along with some great garments designed by Jane Slicer-Smith.

I hope you enjoyed Canada Day. Dad, Beth and I golfed. My game was much better but my body still hurts.

Mom goes in for surgery in the morning. Her surgeon (who has done major work on her for the past 20 years) hopes that it is a simple hernia operation and that she can come home on Friday. One day in the hospital will be a first for mom.

New sock and shawl yarns have arrived in the store. Don't forget to ask about them on your next visit.

I'm not sure how much I will get to write before the tent sale. I have a garage full of yarn to organize.

Tuesday afternoon ramblings

I am working on the class schedule for this fall. I have two courses decided on. The first will be an advanced finishing course-a four week course where you will learn how to properly sew side, shoulder and sleeve seams, how to make adjustments to a pattern to make the finishing easier, how to properly pick up stitches around a neck and down a front band on a jacket and if time permits some short rows. The other course will be for the scarf/dishcloth knitter or the person who wants to get back into knitting-we are going to get you knitting a sweater. The yarn will be Hug from Sirdar-big needles so it goes quickly. You can knit for a child, woman or man.



I did get a little knitting accomplished over the weekend. Unfortunately there wasn't much time on Sunday. There was 10 football games and a Nascar race all on at the same time. I spent all day working the converter.

















These amazing backpacks are from the new Noni patterns that will be available later this fall.

We are now carrying Alfa from Sandnesgarn. It is 85% wool and 15% mohair that knits on a 7mm needle.