Knitter's Frolic

Mark your calendars that the Knitter's Frolic is coming up on Saturday May 8 and Sunday May 9.  The market is open on Saturday while classes will be running on Saturday and Sunday.

There are a couple of things to note this year

The market will be open from 9am-5pm on Saturday.

From the Downtown Knit Collective

Shopping Bags
You may not be aware that the City of Toronto has a bylaw that requires the vendor to sell any shopping bags used for 5 cents.  It is part of Toronto's "green initiative".  It is our understanding the by-law enforcement officers have done spot checks at other shows this year and providing the bag as a "gift" is not acceptable.  We do NOT want to see any one of your get a fine for disobeying this by-law.  In our flyer, we have also encouraged our customers to bring their own shopping bags.

My dilemma last night was what to knit.  I didn't want to pick up something that I was already working on.  That meant figuring out what row I was on and paying attention to a pattern.  The easiest project in that situation is another Log Cabin square.

The Tunic is finished.


Sirdar Leaflet 1830
Size 1-2
3 balls Zara Chine colour 1928.


Sally says that my mannequin is 'creepy' so I am going to have Jane knit her a hat while I am away.  

Watching too much TV

I cast off the last stitch of this at midnight.  I wasn't going to bed until it was done.

If you want to get lots of knitting accomplished then pick a TV series, buy the DVDS and start watching.  We are going through 2-3 episodes a night of Grey's Anatomy.  I think we are about half way through Season Four right now.

Here is a close up of the lace.  Atlante shows of a lace pattern very well.

Before I left for work this morning I started blocking.  Unfortunately my piece of styrofoam isn't big enough to do the whole scarf at once so I will block one side today and the other tomorrow.

I have picked my next project.  From Classic Elite I will be making the Drapey Front Cardigan.  Read more about this in the latest Web-Letter from Classic Elite (and see the finished jacket in many different colours).  I will be using Fern Green like the picture.  The yarn is supposed to arrive on Friday-will it get here before I leave for the airport??

Curvy Knits is a new line of patterns from Classic Elite that start at size medium and go up from there.  This pattern is in the booklet Park St.

I started sewing together my baby tunic today.  Way too cute!!!

Another Ishbel

I am going to hear it from my mom today.  "You haven't posted in two days!!"

Saturday I came home from work and went directly upstairs.  It was an incredibly busy day in the store (thanks to all who visited) and I just wanted to knit.  There were about ten episodes of the Y&R for me to watch so I got down to business.

This is another Ishbel.  I am using Atlante (100% bamboo) from Naturally on 4.5mm needles.

I am extremely happy with how the lace is showing up in the Atlante.  Now the push is on to get this done.  I have 7 more rows to go and I want to take it with me to Seattle on Friday afternoon.  Seattle??  I am going to the Yarn Market News Conference-yarn shop owners from across the US and Canada meet for two days of intense sessions.  This will be my third conference and I come home with great ideas-sign up for Twitter-knock out walls and make my shop bigger.

The knitting on my baby dress is done.  I just blocked it and now I can sew together.  Jane is in the store today so that I can do paperwork and errands.  I might need to run to Limeridge to get some cute tights to go with this.

Store Sample

This is my current knitting.  We received a shipment of Zara Chine and the purple was calling my name.  Zara is 100% merino wool from Italy that is machine washable-perfect for baby garments.  Zara is made up of many plies of fine yarn and to make Zara Chine they combine different colour plies.  It is hard to tell in the picture but the colour is a mixture of medium and darker purple.

The pattern is Sirdar leaflet 1830.  It goes from newborn to 7 years and I am knitting a 1-2 year size.  Before I get any questions, I am knitting this as a store sample.  :)

It is now 5 hours since I started my post.  The store has been busy and we got a big shipment in from Namaste.

The new Circular Case from Namaste.  Available in the great Namaste colours-Black, Eggplant, Hollywood Pink, Lime, Peacock and Red.  We have them all.  They aren't on the website yet but should be by the end of the weekend.

From Namaste's website:

The Namaste Circular Case is the solution to storing and organizing all of your circular needles. Features a unique accordion-style opening and labeling system to take the guesswork out of finding the right size. Compact, clever, and oh-so cute! 

There are individual sleeves for each size of needle.  My collection is so big that there will be an individual sleeve for the needle size and length (think 4mm, 60cm)

There are 14 slots for needles.

There are tabs to write needle sizes on.  This way you can individualize your case.

The weather today is amazing and it is supposed to get even nicer on the weekend.  Enjoy the sunshine!!!

Putting mom to work

I saw this great pattern on Ravelry but know that I won't have time to make it so I packed up the yarn (in a Namaste knitting bag) and took it to my mom.  She likes to crochet more than knit so I knew she would enjoy making it.

The pattern is called Chameleon Baby Blanket.  It uses 3 balls of Silk Garden Sock and 3 balls of Kureyon Sock.

Beth took this picture last night while visiting our parents.  She needed to felt some things that Lynda knit and the parents have a top loading machine.

I just unpacked a box of shawl pins from Annie Adams.  They are made of lead free pewter.

This pin is called Blossom.

Aurora

(I just figured out how to make the writing left justified so it is close to the picture-happy day!!)

Cosmos

Ladies night on American Idol was much better!!  I picked Crystal to win during her first audition and at this point I can't see anyone beating her.

Iris the Gourmet Monster

Well, it is that time again.  Rearranging the store.  Now that the Olympics are over and I don't have an excuse to sit and knit all day I must do some work.

The Dyed Cotton and Multi Cotton from Blue Sky Alpacas lived in baskets and I decided that they would look much better put out this way.  The colours really show up now.

A shipment arrived from Lorna's Laces with kits for Iris the Gourmet Monster.  I saw Iris knit up at TNNA and have a kit to knit.  Maybe Rhonda would like to knit her for me??

Five kits have arrived so far.

I let Beth and Amanda pick the colours that we were sent.
Bright turquoise and lime-Beverly

Hot pink, yellow and orange-Winona
The yarn in the kits is Revelation-100% wool, bulky weight

Denim blues-a new colour called Avondale
The kits contain the eyes and a piece of felt to cut for the mouth

Wine, coral, olive green and yellow-another new colour Zombie Barbecue

Bright yellow, turquoise and lime-Daffodil
4.5mm-5mm needles will be used to knit Iris.

Somedays I am really showing my age.  I went home last night without the cord to my laptop.  It really isn't a big deal because I can work on my iMac but it throws me off.  I had many mail orders to do and I am used to doing them on the laptop.  Printing is easier from the laptop.  Now that I am at work my laptop needs to be charged and I can't do that from the front room while I am working on it.

Did anyone watch Idol last night?  Was that not the longest two hours of your life?  I am not sure if any of the guys have enough talent to win the competition-their performances were so boring last night.

Spring is in the air

The new Interweave Knits has arrived.  This is the Handkerchief Tee knit out of Debbie Bliss Prima.

Here is another view.  Way too cute!!!

Preview the magazine...

We totally forgot that The Amazing Race was starting again.  We watched on Sunday night after missing the first two episodes.  The cowboys look like they are going to be tough to beat.

Yesterday was spent on a road trip to Toronto.  We were out of clear shopping bags in the store and I have been putting off making the drive.  The day was so bright and sunny that I couldn't pass it up.  Of course I stopped at Yorkdale-it was right around the corner.  I came home with nothing.  It was one of those days-nothing was calling my name.  Oh, I forgot, except for the $1000 purse at Coach but I set it back down and walked away.  Maybe it will end up in the outlet store one day.

I made it to the finish line

DONE!!  By the time I left work yesterday I had my sweater finished.  The plan was to take a picture of me wearing it today.  Unfortunately I woke up with a headache and didn't feel like putting on makeup for a picture.  I will definitely get one this week.

Why do I have a headache today?  Last night we went and played Bingo. Yes, you are reading that correctly.  When we were younger we often went and played.  It wasn't as much fun as I remembered.  Fourteen of us went and we kept getting in trouble for talking.  Concentrating on the numbers and not missing anything was just too much.  It could be another twenty years before I go again.

I am dressed in my Olympic sweatshirt (Roots 2002-Salt Lake City when we won the gold in hockey) waiting for the hockey game to begin.  Please let it be a good game that we win.  :)

Blocking again

This is how my Clapotis has looked for the past few months.  The ends did not lie flat and I was always trying to flatten them as I was wearing the scarf.

I brought in the blocked version this morning.  Now the scarf lies flat and I am much happier with how it looks.

The pattern is from Knitty.com.  I used 2 balls of Silk Garden Sock on 4mm needles.

If I was to make this again I would make it half as wide-it is almost too wide for a scarf and not wide enough for a shawl.

My Olympic sweater is finished.  Okay, the knitting, blocking and seaming is done.  Now I am sewing in the ends.  That should take me the rest of the afternoon-for some reason there are a million ends!!!

Victory

Absolutely nothing was accomplished on my Olympic sweater last night. I had three rows to finish my sleeve but I didn't take it out of the bag. The sleeve is done now and I am ready to start sewing.  The crunch is on and I need to get moving!!!

More new yarn.

This is Victory from Trendsetter. We have all colours in stock. The yarn is made up of 77% nylon and 23% cotton.

Barry (the owner of Trendsetter yarns) did a great job on the patterns for Victory.

The cropped lace cardigan is very cute.

Dropped stitch cardigan using the yarn double strand.  How quick will this be to knit up?

Lace sun top.

These patterns are available in Trendsetters booklet 4001.

Lace cabled cardigan.

Blocking

After blocking Ishbel I decided it was time to block my Clapotis.  I have been wearing the scarf but in my heart I knew that it needed a good blocking.

Here it is laying out in my bathroom on a piece of styrofoam.

I have pinned it down, slightly stretching it, with Knitters Pins (from Clover) and then a wet towel is placed over top.

This is the end that has been blocked.  The scarf is very long so I am blocking it in sections.

And the unblocked end.  It is hard to see in the picture but there is a big difference between blocked and unblocked.  The blocked lays nice and flat.

I was going to talk about the surprise shipments from yesterday and then a shipment arrived today that makes me very happy.

Yesterday-Tanis Fiber Arts-more Fiddlehead Mitten kits.

The mittens shown are knit in Aqua.

Pinks.

Greens.

And then from one of my favourite companies-Offhand Designs.

This is Gatsby in Judy.  It will look very nice going home with me tonight.  :)

Gatsby in Carlotta.

Circular needle cases.

I really need to take a few home and get my circular needles in order.  They are currently in a box and that doesn't make it easy to find the size that I need.

The end is in sight for my Olympic knitting.  I am at the shaping for the top of sleeve two.  Hopefully I can get the shoulder seams and neck band done before I go home today.  Then I can block tonight and finish sewing tomorrow.  Since there isn't a lot of time I will pin out my sweater and use my steamer.

What a great day for Canadians at the Olympics yesterday.  Speedskating, short track and bobsleigh.  Our women were great!!  The hockey team didn't do too bad either.

Is anyone watching American Idol?  The past two nights have been awful.  Please pick better songs!!  Why so boring??

Wool Tops

I received a comment on my scarf yesterday asking for the name of the pattern and the yarn.  Sorry about this.  I guess from now on when I post a finished project I should put all that information.

The pattern is Ishbel.   This link will take you to Ravelry and you can buy the pattern there.

The yarn is Sekku from Noro.  I used one ball of colour 6.

While I was at TNNA I ordered some wool tops from Lorna's Laces-great for spinning and needle felting.

This is Wool Top-100% combed wool top-10oz.

Shepherd Wool Top-100% superwash merino-5oz.


We just received a shipment of fleece from Fleece Artist as well.
Blue Face Leicester Sliver-100% wool-50 grams
Kid Sliver-100% Kid Mohair-50 grams

We received two packages today.  One was from Wannietta and it contained this great cardigan.  It is knit in Noro Kureyon and the pattern can be found in Jenny Watson's Noro Catwalk 2.  I need to sew on the buttons but wanted a picture so it is hanging right now with a glass shawl pin from Moving Mud.

The second box was from Tanis Fiber Arts.  I am going to save the contents until tomorrow.

Last night I finished the first sleeve on my Olympic sweater.  There are only four days left so I better get going!!