Woolcycle

Stephen West sent out an email newsletter this morning.

It's time for my Westknits Spring Sale! This is the perfect occasion for you to plan your spring and summer knitting projects and let your creativity bloom. Enjoy 25% off all my patterns until tomorrow night!

Simply enter the discount code “SPRING” when you checkout on my website or on Ravelry to get 25% off my patterns and ebooks. The code can be used as many times as you want and is valid until the end of day on Sunday, 26th of March. The discount does not apply to the Modular Coloring Shawls e-book.  

Photos © Stephen West

I made up kits for the Striation Scarf. You can purchase online or in the store. More kits will be coming.

I had to stop because Mr. UPS brought in our boxes from Madelinetosh. The new Woolcycle Sport is available online. I have a few skeins in my bag to try 😘.

The plan right now is to knit the Kilim Cowl (pattern purchased on Ravelry) with Woolcycle Well Water with Dyed in the Wool Shades of Earth.

The Kilim Cowl is a celebration of my Iranian and Kurdish heritage, and the beautiful artistry of Persian carpets. A Kilim is a flat tapestry-woven carpet or rug traditionally produced in countries of the former Persian Empire that highlights geometric shapes and are handwoven with naturally dyed wool. Growing up, my father owned a Persian rug shop where he fixed and sold antique carpets from the Middle East, including Kilims. I was raised around these beautiful works of arts and was taught all about the laborious process of this ancient craft. I learned all about how many months/years they took to make, the process of creating the vegetable and fruit dyed yarn, and what the various shapes and motifs represented on the carpets. I wanted to honor my heritage by creating a knitted cowl that celebrated this beautiful art form and paid homage to my family’s history. This moebius cowl is knit in the round and features a colorwork motif that signifies my version of the evil eye, or Nazar in Farsi, that’s often woven into Kilims. The piece is then finished off with a twist and grafted together using the kitchener stitch to create the moebius style cowl.

I need plane knitting - Beth and I leave for Vegas on Sunday morning. (Don’t forget that the store will be closed Wednesday April 5th). I also need to try the Woolcycle. It looks beautiful. 

My bag of shawls to be blocked. Alex stopped by this morning to pick them up - I keep forgetting to take them to her. Alex is going to have them ready for LYS Day (Saturday April 29th). I will write more about it next week.

I’m ready to lock up and head home. We’re having take out for dinner because neither Beth or I want to grocery shop and cook. Then some knitting. We have TV shows to catch up that were taped during the week.

Camp

Today I have been working on Camp. Rooms are assigned and we still have some great rooms available.

This is Swallows Nest. There are two units in the cottage that share a porch. Each unit has 2 bedrooms. One bedroom has a queen bed and the other bedroom has a queen bed with a pullout sofa. The cottage overlooks the lake.

Here is a tour of the cottage.

This is the Chipmunk Cottage if you want to come by yourself.

This is a small stand alone cottage. The bedroom has a queen size bed. There is a full bathroom and a living room with wood burning fireplace.

Balsam has two units available. One room has a king size bed, bathroom, fireplace and deck overlooking the lake.

The other unit in Balsam has 2 queen beds, bathroom, fireplace and deck overlooking the lake.

If you’ve already registered for Camp watch your inbox. There will be a newsletter coming this week.

I was at the store early to pack boxes and now I’m waiting for Mr. Canada Post to pick up the boxes. I’m also waiting on UPS to bring boxes from Madelinetosh. 

It’s after dinner and I’m watching the Home Run Derby while I’m writing.

Mr. Canada Post arrived and I waited another 45 minutes but UPS still wasn’t there. I left to run errands and wouldn’t you know it - UPS showed up 15 minutes after I left. We’ll see the yarn on Wednesday.

What’s in the box from Madelinetosh? I looked at some of the colours that we used to carry and ordered them in tosh merino light. 

Esoteric

Kelp

Denim

Fallen Cloud

Robin’s Egg

There will be a few new colours in Tosh Twist Light including

Texas Tulips

You Do You

Glass Bottom Boat

There was a bit of knitting time between errands and making dinner. Elah is growing. Lynn is constantly raving about how well the pattern is written. I agree. 

I need to get going. I want to have the cardigan finished to wear to Camp. That means I’m saying goodnight and moving to the knitting chair.

Madelinetosh

Mr. UPS brought 2 big boxes from Madelinetosh. These bright skeins are Unicorn Tails. This is exactly the same yarn as Tosh Merino Light but smaller skeins.

100% Superwash Merino Wool
Fingering | single-ply
52 yards per tail
Knit | 26-30 sts = 4in or 10cm | US 1-2
Crochet | 21-32 sts = 4in or 10cm | US B1-E4

Machine wash cold on delicate cycle, air dry flat
Hand-Dyed in Texas from wool ethically sourced in South Africa

📷 © Ambah O’Brien

Ambah O’Brien’s Lamina Cowl & Wrap would look amazing in Unicorn Tails. You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry.

Let Lamina be a strata formation of all your oddment end balls in your stash, revealing the past in the form of projects knit and loved. Also perfect for mini skeins, holiday sets and unicorn tails. Alternately Lamina can also be worked in a single colour, gradient or full skeins of your favourite colour and contrast – so many possibilities. Enjoy the updated version of the Lamina Wrap pattern with inclusion of the new Lamina Cowl option; choose between a short or long cowl and have fun creating with colour. 

Lamina includes both written and charted instructions for the lace.

We also received Tosh DK, Tosh Merino Light, Tosh Sport, Tosh Vintage and Tosh Twist Light. The website has been updated.

We have 2 brand new colours of Tosh Merino Light. Fire Opal (above) and Pluot (below).

Have a great Friday evening. We have golf, baseball and hockey on as well as Top Chef that was taped last night. It’s time to move to the knitting chair.

Trio of Colours

My post is very short today because I spent the afternoon at the dentist. Two hours in the chair. My mouth is a bit sore. After receiving the shipment of Tosh Merino Light with lots of pretty colours I was looking back at some of my projects that I knit in TML. This is from 2017.

I used Tosh Merino Light to knit Ambah O’Brien’s Xanthe. Ambah’s shawls stand the test of time. You can knit it today and no one will tell you that the pattern is five years old.

Xanthe Wrap is an invitation to play. Choose a trio of colours to express your style, the varations are endless; stripe two neutrals and add a lace colour pop, or keep it neutral for a classic look. Use your wildest speckle yarn striped with a solid and co-ordinating lace colour for something as fun to knit as it is to wear. The stretches of garter stitch make this a perfect project for travel or mindless knitting while beautiful lace keeps it interesting. 
Xanthe is knit on the bias which results in a rhomboid shape; it is easy to wear and will fast become a wardrobe staple. 

Pattern includes fully written instructions accompanied by a chart for the lace section.

You can purchase the pattern for Xanthe from Ambah on Etsy.

The colours are Cactus Flower, Prairie Fire and Medieval.

When Lucy was smaller and able to fit in the front seat.

I have a lot of suggested posts on Instragram about St. Bernards. I save them and show them to dad and Beth at dinner. Many of the dogs have the same traits as Lucy. 

Plus Shawl

Meet the Plus Shawl - a new pattern that just came out on Ravelry.

 © Olga Buraya-Kefelian

Worked from side to side this highly textured shawl features staggered graphic motif all the way throughout. The three-dimensional effect is achieved by combining easy knits and purls together with slip-stitches for the unique technique! Engaging rhythm of knitting is enhanced by the use of solid and gradient yarns that provide a wonderful opportunity to showcase a perfect marriage between pattern and continuous evolution of colors, that make this design a fun knit and even more enjoyable to wear!

The shawl is knit in sport weight yarn. Olga used Dyed in the Wool from Spincycle with another sport weight from Spincycle. Here are a few suggestions. Patagonia with Dyed in the Wool, Felted Tweed with Felted Tweed Colour, Patagonia with Starke 6.

Here is a link to Ravelry to purchase the pattern.

Here is a link to finished projects on Ravelry. They are stunning.

I forgot something in last night’s post. The new J’adore Needle Sets are on the way to us. We should see them early next week.

Don’t forget the Spring Cleaning sale started this morning. The wall of Singles are on sale for 30% off.

If you are looking for an easy, one skein pattern, take a look at Joji’s Storm Shawl.

We used one skein of LITLG Singles to make the shawl. 

It’s been a while since I last published a One Skein Wonder pattern. They’re always a favorite.  

Storm uses just one skein of precious fingering weight yarn. It features dramatic dropped stitches and short rows that give this pattern a de-constructed look while also giving you a bigger shawl with the same yardage.

You can purchase the pattern on Joji’s website. 

 

I stayed late to wait for Mr. UPS. Two large boxes of Madelinetosh arrived. I’ll work on getting these online tomorrow.

I wanted easy knitting last night so I pulled out my Temperature blanket. Halfway through the row my ball ran out. I totally forgot another ball - it’s Survivor night and I’ll need mindless knitting. I guess I’m going to work on Attune and be very careful with the Brioche.