Casting Off

I'm in the home stretch on my Linen Stitch scarf-the cast off is almost finished. I wanted a picture before I left for the day so it's still on the needle.

I think I could have added two more rows (I hate having yarn left over) but I was afraid that I might have calculated wrong and would run out part way through one of the rows. That would have been worse than having left over yarn. :)

It's actually more of a shawl than a scarf which isn't a bad thing. I'm going to have fun picking shawl pins to go with it next week.

All ends are sewn in. DONE.

Pattern: The Lonely Tree Shawl (free on Ravelry)
I added in an extra chart (Chart D) which isn't on the pattern but you can download here.

Yarn: 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces Haymarket in the colour Daley

Needles: 5.5mm

It was a beautiful day in Ancaster today. The sun was shining (as you can see from my pictures) and it felt like spring. Beth called to say she was going grocery shopping and what did I want for dinner. Steak and baked potatoes on the barbecue won. Dinner was great but now I need a nap. But I can't because I want to get the scarf cast off and pull Eos (my white cotton sweater) out of the bag. It's only 4 weeks today until the Frolic.

Another Finished Project

Beth and I had fun at One of a Kind last night. We were being good (no purchases) until we passed a booth that sells leather purses. I have bought from Matteo Mio before and we stopped to see what they had. Beth saw this bag first and proclaimed that I needed it.

The leather is amazing with a purple, brown, reddish tone to it.

The next stop was at Creations d'Octobre. We have three houses hanging on the dining room wall in Myrtle Beach and picked up two more for the side wall.

At Christmas a customer gave me the cutest card from a company called Little Big Words. When I was reading the show brochure I saw that they were there. Kelli had some great cards (we came home with 8) and she is going to custom make me Sheep Thank You cards.

Today has been busy so far which is why I'm late posting. I was up early for church and have been going the rest of the day. No nap which is a bit sad. The back yard is now clean for the dogs to play and they were happy to be outside most of the day in the beautiful weather. Criminal Minds, CSI and Grey's Anatomy kept me company while I worked on the linen stitch scarf. Five rows to go.

I also blocked The Lonely Tree Shawl. This is before it's bath. The leaves are a bit bunched and should be lying flat.

Yuzu Soak again today. My kitchen smells really good.

I laid it out on the porch and with the sun it dried in record time. So fast that I didn't get it pinned out with my blocking wires. I will take a look at it tomorrow and might block it again if I think it needs it.

The yarn blocks beautifully. My leaves are flat now.

If you are looking for a worsted/aran weight yarn for a project I would highly recommend Haymarket. 

All done except for a few ends to sew in. 

College basketball is on and I'm going to try and get a few rows of my scarf done. I said it would be finished this week and I'm going to make it.

The Lonely Tree

It's almost done. The knitting is finished and I am doing the cast off. That should be done tomorrow. Then a good blocking over the weekend.

The picot cast off. Haymarket is great to work with. More colours should be coming very soon-maybe next week.

It was nice being able to take my friend outside at 5:30 and still have enough light to get a picture.

Hi - this is Beth - guest blogger. Julie is currently casting on another project for me - yay!  I think she might have been happier when I wasn't knitting, as she now spends a lot of time casting on, fixing my mistakes, casting off, and sewing in ends.  Yes, I know that I should learn to do these things myself, but it is much faster (and looks a lot better) if Julie does these things for me.  I would feel bad about the extra work she has to do, but then I remember that next month I will be hauling half her store to The Knitter's Frolic and back again. That has to be worth a little bit of knitting help - right?

No Snow Day

I was up at 6am with the news on waiting to see that the school buses were cancelled. No school means the roads are too bad to go to work. Didn't happen. I was up so I got the day started. I was in the store by 8:30 so lots of knitting was accomplished today.

The Lonely Tree Shawl is growing. Chart C is done and I just attached the second ball of yarn. I'm adding Chart D-which isn't part of the pattern but you can download here. I have lots of yarn and bigger is always better.

I received notification today that the shawl pins that were ordered at TNNA are on the way to us.

Spring Bud Shawl Pin

Single Leaf Shawl Pin

So the snow they called for only partially came.

It isn't nice fluffy snow. When the driveway was cleaned this morning and again this afternoon (it hasn't stopped here but it isn't accumulating) it made big chunks of snow.

My knitting is packed to head home. It's a big TV night. Survivor. And it looks like there will be lots of fighting tonight. American Idol. Now that the auditions are over we have started watching. The judges are meaner so far this year. We like it that way. Big Brother Canada starts tonight too.

Knitting Camp

I've been up for hours and it's only 9am. I have my decaf from Tim's and am sitting down to work on the Camp brochure. It is on my old computer so I'm working on two laptops at once.

I think it is done. Just needs to be proofread. The classes this year are great. Josh is going to be teaching design classes. Fiona has three new classes for us-one on necklines and two on cables. Beth will be teaching yarn dying again.

An email came in from Namaste this morning while I was working.

We have them on order already. When I went to TNNA I used the Devin wristlet in my bag to hold all my medication. The Jemma pouch was great for holding all my change. There are many uses for both.

The Lonely Tree Shawl is growing. I have 14 rows to go and then the edging. There is lots of yarn left so I think I'm going to add in another chart to make the shawl bigger.

We had a great time at the Hamilton-Halton Construction Association dinner last night. Our cousins were there who we haven't seen in a while so it was good catching up.

This is the picture of my Opa that will hang on the wall with the rest of the inductees into the Hall of Fame. Many stories were told about him-some that I haven't heard before.

If you live in Ancaster, don't forget that tomorrow is the annual food drive. Last year they collected 80,000 pounds of food. You can leave donations on your front porch and volunteers will be out picking them up between 9am and 2pm.

Back at it

I'm back to knitting. Last night while watching CSI and then Flipping Vegas my fingers were flying. The cowl is almost done. The first ball of the contrast colour (pinks and purples) has run out. I think I might finish the 12 row pattern and then cast off.

I picked up the Lonely Tree Shawl in the store this afternoon.

The first chart (chart A) is done and I'm onto chart B.

Mr. Canada Post showed up this morning without the boxes from madelinetosh. Where are they??? Hopefully tomorrow.

He did bring in a box from Namaste. There are two new colours in the Laguna bag.

Exterior Pockets? Check. Interior Pockets? Check. Zippered interior divider and detachable shoulder strap? Check. Check. Organizing your craft, work, or kid stuff with your personal items is just another day at the beach with Namaste's Laguna bag. The Laguna has 5 metal feet on the bottom and strong magnetic closures at the top. 

There is a box heading out to Ann tomorrow. She is going to knit in the new Debbie Bliss Luxury Silk DK. I wanted a sweater that will really show off the striping of the yarn.

I really like the colour that it is pictured in but I try to make samples in a different colour. We're going with Ocean.

It's a really cold and windy night in Ancaster. The fireplace is on and I'm going to sit and knit for a while. Hope you are staying warm this evening.

Lonely Tree

I'm making progress on the shawl. The pattern is well written. It is only in chart form but it is an easy chart to read. All you need to know is knit, purl, yarn over, slip 1 knit 1 pass slipped stitch over and slip 1 knit 2 together pass slipped stitch over.

Here is a better picture showing the colours. There is almost a shine to the yarn.

I was adding the Spud and Chloe yarns to the new website which meant going to their website. In the free pattern section I found these really cute baby mittens. No thumbs so you can whip them up. Spud and Chloe Sweater (the yarn used) has 29 colours to choose from.

Download the pattern...

Taiyo Lace is a new yarn from Noro for spring. Here are two free patterns.

All you need is one or two balls depending on size.

Download the pattern...

Download the Tunic pattern...

All you need is one ball.

This is as far as I got on my post Saturday morning. The store was busy all afternoon and I didn't get back to it. When I closed the store I went home, changed and was off to the Carpenteros Valentines Dinner. This raises money for Honduras. The funds don't pay for the people who go on the mission trips-they pay their own way there. All money raised goes directly to Honduras for wells, schools, meeting halls and whatever the board thinks is a good cause. The dinner is held in a school gym. The meal is prepared and served by volunteers and we had 180 people for dinner. Beth and I look after the coat check and then are servers for dinner. Do that for an evening and you have a new appreciation for the people who serve you in a restaurant.

We got home about 11pm after helping to clean up and I fell into bed. This morning I woke up achy with a headache, fever, sore throat and a cough. Most of the day was spent in bed or on the couch. You know I wasn't feeling well because I had a ticket to a box at the Raptors game tonight and couldn't go. I'm feeling better now. Going to have a tea and maybe watch a bit of TV before getting to bed and being ready for work tomorrow.

Mr. UPS will have three boxes for us. Two from Rowan and one from Lorna's Laces. Maybe Mr. Canada Post or Mr. Canpar will have some goodies as well.

Snow Day

It's been snowing all day in Ancaster. No work for me. What to do? Start knitting with Haymarket from Lorna's Laces. I brought this home from TNNA.

Pattern: The Lonely Tree Shawl - free on Ravelry
Colour: Daley
Needles: 5.5mm - the pattern says 5mm but I wanted to make the shawl a bit bigger

This picture doesn't show my knitting very well but it shows a picture of the finished shawl.

Mr. UPS has boxes on his truck for us so I guess he will be bringing them on Monday. There is a large box from Lorna's Laces with a few colours of Haymarket. The yarn is really nice to knit with. No splitting. I haven't knit very much with it but so far I can say that I highly recommend it.

Mr. Roko (left) loves the snow. He keeps going to the back door to go out and play. It's fun to dig in the snow to find your toys.

Mr. Melo could take it or leave it. His paws were getting wet.

We got Beth's truck shovelled out. It was a bit of an adventure. She backed her truck in which sounded smart at the time. Not really. Her drivers door was beside the grass and her tires were on the edge of the driveway. We couldn't shovel to get to the drivers door so I walked through snow that was well above my knees. Tomorrow night is the annual Valentines Dinner to raise money for Honduras. They need to start setting up tonight so Dad and Beth have made their way out. Thank goodness for 4 wheel drive. If I can't get my car out in the morning I know that I can get to work in Beth's truck.

The poor kids who have to clean the driveways in our complex will have their work cut out for them tonight.

There are a couple of magazines that arrived Thursday afternoon that I forgot to mention.

The Luxury Silk DK was in the box as well. It looks really nice-very shiny. 100% silk.

It's later in the evening and I have fed the kids who are shovelling. I baked them chocolate chip cookies and took them water. Yes, our driveway will be good and clean. In case you are living in a nice warm climate and are missing the snow here is a picture of what we ended up with.

And this is nothing compared to what the people of the north east are going to get. Wishing you the best-hope that they are wrong about how much snow is heading your way.

The Lonely Tree Shawl

I found another pattern. This one is in worsted weight yarn (bigger needles, knits quicker). Beth from Lorna's Laces knit this shawl in her new yarn Haymarket. You can see it on the Lorna's Laces Facebook page. Part of me says to wait until market and the new yarn.

If I was to start it now....tosh pashmina worsted. But maybe a tweed. Classic Elite Portland Tweed. Berroco Blackstone Tweed. Naturally Aran Tweed.

A lovely Fall weather leaves shawl knit in tweedy worsted weight yarn. A perfect edition to any autumn wardrobe. It’s a simple lace knit that would be good for intermediate level knitters who are comfortable with knitting, purling, and working yarn overs.

This is a free pattern to download on Ravelry.

When you look at notes from the designer, she talks about one more chart to make it bigger. Chart D. It took some searching but I found it on Ravelry. It is post 399 on page 16. You can also find it here.

Beth and I had dinner with our friend Bev, her husband David and her son Russ last night. Then we went to see Matt, Bev's grandson, play hockey. His team won. I didn't take any knitting home because I thought we would be home late. We were home earlier than I thought (you would think I knew how long a hockey game lasted) so I did some packing of yarn to ship out. Then what? Something got me and look what happened. The blog has been redesigned. I like the clean lines. I think it is easy to read. My one worry is the font. Did I make it too big? I think that it should be easy to read but did I go too far? The font on the right (in the boxes) is what I started with. Which is better in your opinion?

Just talked with Amanda at Lorna's Laces. Downton Abbey is being shipped to me today (I've received the shipping confirmation from USPS) and it should be here next week.

We are also getting more skeins of Fifty Shades of Grey.

I also talked with Rowan and the magazines are shipping from the US today. I should have the tracking number from UPS tomorrow and will be able to watch the boxes and find out when they are going to arrive.

Still no knitting but I'm declaring this evening to be a no work evening. I'm going to knit for hours.