Box of Happiness

We have some new Opal sock yarn in stock. Schafpate 5.

Schafpate means "local sheep," and this yarn line promotes a “buy local” concept. The wool for Schafpate 5 is grown and processed in Germany, then the yarn is spun and printed in Germany, so Schafpate 5 has a smaller carbon footprint and keeps the local fiber industry strong.

I looked a bit on Ravelry and found some patterns (for socks and other things) that would look great in Opal sock yarn

Circle Mitts

Katy Jubilee Shawl

Opal Sock Yarn Bunny

Domino Star Stashbuster Afghan

Upstairs Sox

Circle Socks

Mr UPS brought in a box that is going to make my sister very happy. Bubble bath from LUSH. She's run out and there hasn't been time to drive to Square One to get more. I was going to make her wait until Christmas but she pouted when I told her. I guess she's getting an early Christmas present tonight.

After Survivor we watched The X Factor last night. I would like someone to define British Invasion for me. In my world that is the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, the Who. Not on the X Factor. I'm not sure that Kate Bush was part of the British Invasion. Sorry-going back to Survivor. Could you vote your mother/father/brother/sister out? I'm not sure that I could.

Beth and I have been out for dinner (thanks mom for loaning giving Beth $40 earlier today) and now I'm doing some work while Beth is using some happiness from her box.

Inspiring

Dee O'Keefe designs amazing shawl patterns. I contacted her on Ravelry and she gave me permission to use her pictures.

From her Ravelry page (where you can see all of her designs)...

I am a shawl designer who lives in Alexandria, VA, a few miles outside of Washington, DC. Sure, I’ve knit other things, but I am obsessively drawn to lace shawls and so decided why not just give in and “specialize.” Resistance is futile!

I love charts for knitting lace and want everyone else to love them too. So all my patterns have really big, pretty charts that are easy to read and use.

My patterns are test knitted by my wonderful band of merry testers/knitting detectives and tech edited for your knitting pleasure.

Elizabeth Shawl

Glenallen Shawl

Liz Stole

Nadira Shawl

All of the shawls pictured above are knit in lace weight yarn. There are a few more in thicker yarns.

 Catoctin Shawl in fingering weight

Ruxton Shawl knit in sportweight.

Her shawls are so inspiring!! So much so that I'm going to sign off and get back to my knitting. There are yarn overs in my cardigan so I'm kind of knitting lace :)

Amuri HD

We have a new yarn in the store.

Old Mill Knitting has taken Amuri (75% pure New Zealand wool and 25% possum from Naturally) and had it hand dyed by Zen Yarn Garden.

This yarn will only be available through yarn shops in Canada.

The colours are awesome. A skein did fall into my bag before I left work.

The skeins are 50 grams. 155m/170 yards. 22 stitches = 4" on 4mm needles. 

Beth has been playing with the yarn for a few weeks.

Beth is standing behind me telling me to add more pictures of her knitting. She's quite proud of this one.

Pattern: Woodstacking by Anne Hanson (purchased on Ravelry)

One skein of Amuri HD

4mm, 40cm circular

Pattern: That Nice Stitch by Susan Ashcroft (free on Ravelry)

One skein of Amuri HD - Beth said that she would use 2 skeins if she made it again so that it was long enough to wrap around twice.

Needles: 4mm but it could be knit on 4.5mm and the yarn would still look great.

Here's what I've been doing tonight.

This will be The Noble Cowl. One skein of Amuri HD knit with 4mm, 40cm needles. The pattern is free on Ravelry.

It's time to sign off and get back to my cowl. 

That thing you wear on an airplane in case the AC is turned too high

A very strange title. I know. Keep reading and it will make sense. :)

I've spent a lot of time today working on the website.
-There is a new section for knitting needles.
-Messages have been sent to my 'guy' to get more shade cards added as soon as possible.
-One yarn that I've shown quite a bit lately because Beth has gone crazy knitting with it is Misti Hand Paint Chunky. It's on the website now and shade cards should be coming soon.

The colours are awesome. Here are a few - we have 14 in the store right now.

CP56 Purple Turquoise

CP54 Pico

CP53 Vienna

CP47 Sea Jasper

This is a free pattern from Misti's website that you can download.

One skein of Misti Hand Paint Chunky
11mm needles

Think of the shawl pin options.

Gabrielle is growing. The second skein is almost finished.

When I was coming to work today I planned on taking this outside to get a picture. Then it turned bitter cold (I know it's not that cold but I'm not ready for winter yet) and the snow started. I opted for inside pictures.

Have you taken a look at my Flipboard lately? There was a bit of a lull in adding pictures and articles because Flipboard and Ravelry weren't getting along. They've made up and now I can add patterns from Ravelry. Let the 'flipping' begin. Lots of pattern ideas. I also try to find knitting articles to share as well.

And one more thing before I sign off and start working on the Camp brochure. Sally Melville is going to be joining us for Knitting Camp 2014 and while we were emailing back and forth last week she mentioned her newest pattern. L'Enveloppe - pattern available on Ravelry. From Sally

Every time I wear this and everywhere I go, I’ve had it commented on—by strangers on the street, by shop owners or customers, by knitters or non. And each time they say something like “I love that … thing you’re wearing!” No-one knows what to call it, and—frankly—neither do I. Because one arm goes through (as does the neck) but the other arm is free, it’s not a cape, not a poncho, not a shrug, not a shawl, not a cowl. It’s small enough to wear under a coat but big enough to wear instead of one. And it envelops us in style. And so here’s its moniker: L’Enveloppe. (As you might imagine, this is French for envelope. Its style led me there. I suppose its name could have been “That thing you wear on an airplane in case the AC is turned too high,” but that didn’t sit as well on the page.)

It is very cool!! Take a look.

Go Cats Go

The party last night was a lot of fun. Friday evening Beth received a text from Linda who works in dad's office. She bought a shirt for my dad but then started second guessing the present. She was afraid that my mom would be mad. Beth and I told her she had to give it to him.

My mom's name is Karen and her maiden name started with a C. My dad calls her KC. The shirt is perfect and they both laughed like crazy. Dad wore the shirt the whole evening.

The party was at Acclamation - a restaurant in downtown Hamilton. They have a room you can book downstairs for private parties. The food was awesome and everyone had a great time.

There hasn't been much knitting today. I spent all afternoon flipping between football games. Who would have thought that the Tiger Cats would be going to the Grey Cup?? Then I started working on the brochure for Knitting Camp 2014. And a little surprise-I'm going to teach a few workshops this year. Now to decide what I want to teach.

The Amazing Race is on right now, then a bit of football before The Mentalist. Are we going to meet Red John tonight?

Classic Elite

Classic Elite has started something new in their latest pattern book and it's the coolest thing. There is a code inside the book. You go to the website shown, enter your code and the book downloads to your Ravelry library. Now I have it on my computer and iPad plus a hard copy. It makes it so easy to print off the pages you need for the project that you are doing. No more fighting with the photocopier to get the chart on the page properly. No breaking the spine of your book to get a copy of something. Yes, sometimes the little things in life make me very happy.

There hasn't been a lot of knitting on Gabrielle but I like how it is looking so far. The yarn is great to knit with.

I just got home from work and need to get my act together. We're picking up the parents soon. I'm the designated driver tonight. It could be an interesting drive home :)

50 Years

Today is my parent's anniversary. 50 years. Wow. That is a long time. My dad says that my mom has had 45 good years and he's had 5. They had a small spat last night around 9pm while watching the football game. Mom was cheering for Indianapolis and dad wanted Tennessee to win. Beth told them to figure it out because neither one was coming to stay with us :)

My dad just brought me a tea and we got talking about their wedding day. My dad built their house before they got married. They were married on a Friday evening and then went to Toronto for their honeymoon. A very short honeymoon. Saturday morning they were back in Ancaster by 8 for the delivery of the stove and fridge. They didn't have kitchen cupboards or counters which meant no sink. They washed dishes in the bathtub for the first month they were married. He thinks their first dinner was hot dogs so he is taking her to 5 Guys for burgers tonight. No, they aren't the go out for really expensive dinner kind of people.

A parcel came from Lynda today with a new sample.

Pattern: Groovy - purchased on Ravelry
Yarn: 8 skeins of Rowan Alpaca Colour

Made with 100% baby alpaca, Rowan Alpaca Colour is a soft and durable DK knitting yarn. The soft, subtle blend of colours in each shade allows the beauty of the yarn to show through and is ideal for textured knitting stitches.

The colour gradation is fabulous!

You can make a smaller scarf (less skeins) or add skeins for a nice big shawl.

Beth and I just got home from seeing our parents. We took them cake and ice cream to celebrate. Now it's time for sleep because tomorrow is going to be busy. Work and then their party.

Meet Gabrielle

My new project. I've been in a bit of a knitting lull lately. I can't explain it but it happens sometimes. I have lots of great projects on the go but nothing is keeping my interest. Sometimes a new project is needed. Gabrielle is going to get me back on track. I have yarn, the pattern, the needle, waste yarn and crochet hook for provisional cast on and stitch markers. I'm ready to start.

Beth wound two skeins for me.

Majestic Tweed from Classic Elite

40% wool
20% angora
20% silk
20% nylon

It's knitting up quickly. 5.5mm needles help. I did the provisional cast on and 10 rows while watching Grey's Anatomy. Now a few more rows while watching football.

I like purple but the purple yarn is not part of the jacket. The back is knit from the centre back to the sleeve and then I take out the provisional cast on, put the stitches back on the needle and work from the centre back to the other sleeve. I picked a yarn that will be easy to see when I need to put the stitches back on the needle.

The lull might be over. I need to say good night so that I can get back to my needles.

Blocking

I know that I talk a lot about blocking. So much that you might skim over my words when you see blocking. But it's really important. And it's easy to do.

Here is the Leaf Scarf - blocked, dried and ends sewn in. Going a touch off topic for a minute. There is more madelinetosh asap coming soon. I'm guessing in 3 weeks we will have cathedral, vishnu, alizarin, mala, nassau blue and flash dance.

The Leaf Scarf was wet blocked. I filled the sink with water and some Soak and let the scarf soak for 20 minutes. I drained the sink, put a towel under the scarf and pulled it out. I let the towel soak up a lot of water and then laid out the scarf on a dry towel. I didn't pin it out-the weight of the wet yarn made it lie flat.

That wet towel came in handy.

I showed you these cowls that Beth wrote the pattern for and knit. In the original pictures the edges rolled quite a bit. I laid them out and put the wet towel on them over night. Then I let them sit for a day with a dry towel on them. Most of the roll is gone.

Opal Le Petit Prince is on the website now but we haven't added the shade cards yet. Here they are.

The colours are awesome.

This is colour 7760.

7761

7762

7763

7764

7765

7766

7767

There will be new colours of Opal available in December. One of my jobs tomorrow is to do the order. I love sock yarn :)

Survivor is done and now Beth has The X Factor on. It's 80s nights. I love a lot of 80s music and I'm not sure they are doing it any justice. I'm going to leave the room and do some laundry and then find other work to do until the show is over.