Shenanigans

I've been looking at patterns and decided on Chevron Shenanigans. My five colours of GarnStories are going to be
Chasing Birds
First Flush
Bliss
Past Perfect
Charade

©Stephen West

Select a palette of fading colors to knit this top-down garter stitch shawl. Short rows with chevrons create the unique asymmetrical shape. The small size features four colors and the large size uses five colors fading from light to dark. I-cord edges decorate the clean lines of this classic Westknits shawl.

©Stephen West

Nightshift is almost finished. I think I have about 6 rows to go.

There wasn't a lot of knitting today. We cleaned this morning. The house wasn't too bad but we still had dishes to do and the floors needed to be vacuumed. I had a few hours of sleep (not a good idea - I had a stupid dream that wouldn't end) and then leftover ham and potatoes for dinner.

Don't forget that our Boxing Week Sale starts tomorrow.

Boxing Week Hours
Thursday December 27 10-5:30
Friday December 28 10-5:30
Saturday December 29 10-4
Monday December 31 10-2
Wednesday January 2 10-5:30

Boxing Week Sale
From December 26-31, 2018

Spend $100 - 10% discount
Spend $300 - 15% discount
Spend $500 - 20% discount

This sale is available in the store and online.

If you are having problems ordering online you can call in your order during business hours. If you are shopping after hours, send an email and I will send you a PayPal invoice the next morning.

If you want to pick up your purchase in the store, please leave a note on the order.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I hope everyone had an enjoyable day.

We had 38 people for Christmas dinner. It was a great evening but I am exhausted.

There was no knitting yesterday or today. Maybe tomorrow. Here are a few more colours from GarnStories.

Punk

Bossanova

Cosmique

I would love to write more but my bed is calling. I promise knitting pictures tomorrow!

Santa made a delivery

Okay, it was Mr. Canada Post who delivered our box of yarn from GarnStories this morning. It totally felt like Christmas opening the box. I just want to sit and play with the beautiful skeins.

Charade

I was pulling out the colours that I think I want to work with so I started taking pictures.

Paisley

Kimono

First Flush

Past Perfect

Bliss

Driftwood

Tea with Me

Chasing Birds

I just purchased Joji's Slow Curves pattern and I think I will be starting it this week.

All pictures of Slow Curves ©Joji Locatelli.

Slow Curves is a crescent shawl design that alternates wedges of solid colors with wedges of ‘faded’ or mixed yarns. With the use of short rows, these sections create curves that move like a pendulum. On one side of the shawl you will see 4 definite solid sections and on the other side you will see them all blended together.  

The result is this beautiful, big, optically intriguing shawl. 

This was at 11 and Lucy was already worn out. Dad and Lucy were at Sweet Paradise to buy dinner rolls very early this morning. 6:20. The store didn't open until 7am and there was already 50 people in front of dad. He got the last of the rolls. Then they had a nap before Beth and I arrived at 8:45 for breakfast. The two of them then headed to Caledonia to pick up the cakes for tonight and tomorrow. You shouldn't let Beth order cake when she is hungry. If you ever need a cake, try Jones Bakery in Caledonia. The cake is great.

We're getting the house ready for our first round of guests. There are 10 people coming tonight. I hope they leave early so I can start winding skeins 😉

Boxing Week

Our stockings are finished and hung by the fire with care.

The Jolly Wee Elves (thank you Cathy) are guarding the Christmas Tree.

Dad and I had fun at the game last night. We had really good seats. 7th row.

During the first intermission it was time for TimBits hockey. We watched girls chase the puck around and it was great. One little girl got a breakaway and scored. The crowd went wild.

This afternoon we visited with Uncle Phil. He is my mom's brother who is mentally handicapped. Uncle Phil lives in a Salvation Army home and they are amazing. The patience his care givers have is incredible. We took cake, ice cream and presents. Uncle Phil was in his glory.

I received an email this evening from Claire at Autumn and Indigo. We are going to see more yarn in about a week. There will be skeins of DK including...

Aubretia

Patina

Covered Bridge

Grey October

Boxing Week Hours
Monday December 24 10-2
Thursday December 27 10-5:30
Friday December 28 10-5:30
Saturday December 29 10-4
Monday December 31 10-2
Wednesday January 2 10-5:30

Boxing Week Sale
From December 26-31, 2018

Spend $100 - 10% discount
Spend $300 - 15% discount
Spend $500 - 20% discount

This sale is available in the store and online.

If you are having problems ordering online you can call in your order during business hours. If you are shopping after hours, send an email and I will send you a PayPal invoice the next morning.

If you want to pick up your purchase in the store, please leave a note on the order.

It's almost bed time. The next few days are going to be busy. We have every minute scheduled and there is no time for an afternoon nap either day. I'm going to be hard pressed to find time to knit.

Off to Toronto

I thought that there would be time to blog today but it turns out that I won't have time to write. I am running home at 4 to pick up dad and then we are off to Toronto.

Our GarnStories is getting closer. Maybe Monday?

Domino

Dad, Lucy and I went to the woodworking studio to finalize my counter for the store.

Steve has amazing wood all around his studio.

Nightshift has reminded me how much I love working with Noro yarns. The colour changes are a lot of fun. They make you want to knit. What colour is coming next?

Dominoro (pattern purchased on Ravelry) is another Brian Smith pattern. Even if all your balls are the same lot, they will be different. One could start with green. One could start with gold. One could start with brown. No two shawls will look the same.

In “Domino Knitting” you always need an odd number of stitches. One centre stitch and x amount of stitches either side of that stitch. The idea is to decrease stitches around the centre stitch to create a square. You then pick up stitches on the side of that square to create another one. 

If you’re new to “Domino Knitting” this would make a great first project. Only six squares and four triangles. The pattern contains detailed, but simple instructions to create your first “Domino” shawl.

All you need to know is the knit stitch, how to decrease and picking up stitches.

Brian used four balls of Silk Garden Sock for his shawl. You can use any fingering weight yarn for the shawl. Self-striping. Hand dyed. Scraps.

It's early to bed tonight. Dad and I are going to see the Leafs play tomorrow night. It is going to be a long day.

GarnStories

Reptilia

I can finally share some good news about our GarnStories order. The yarn arrived in Canada on November 20 and was sent to Canada Customs. A letter was sent to us on November 23 and we received it on December 6 that they needed more information. I contacted my broker and from December 6 until yesterday (December 19) we have been working on getting my box released. Finally after many, many phone calls (and even more phone calls) we finally have the release for the box and today it has gone to Canada Post.

I don't have an arrival date yet but hopefully we'll know tomorrow.

Funky Bizz

Our Merino Singles base is a 100% Merino, superwash base. It is beautifully soft and smooth. As a single ply fingering yarn light pilling is possible. This base takes dyes, especially speckles, beautifully. 366m per 100g

I can not wait to see the yarn in person!!

Tea with me

We have 29 colours coming - 8 skeins of each. I won't be starting anything until the box arrives.

Dad and Lucy came for dinner and then we put dad to work hanging more pictures. We have had pictures leaning on walls since our house was painted. It was time to hang them.

We're wrapping presents tonight. Okay, Beth is wrapping presents. I am very meticulous about a lot of things but wrapping is not one of them. Beth claims it is because I don't do it enough. I wrapped one present for Beth and gave up. She is doing the rest of them.

Now we need to tidy the house. The cleaning lady is coming tomorrow 😉

We're making progress

This is all I can show so far but Korey is confident that we will be ready to use the new website by Christmas. Not everything will be transferred by then but we will try and get everything moved over as quickly as possible.

This beautiful shawl is knit with LITLG. We have the three colours that Brian used in both Merino Singles and Bounce Sock.

You can purchase the pattern for Frindorce on Ravelry.

Make sure you check your inbox. A newsletter went out this morning.

I thought that I was so smart going outside for pictures. This is the first picture I took of Nightshift and was upset that it was partly in the shade. I took more in the direct sun and it totally distorted the colours. I was standing in the grass/mud in good shoes and wanted to get into the store quickly so I will do more pictures tomorrow.

Ms. UPS brought in two big boxes this afternoon. The Foldover bag is here.

We just watched the finale of Survivor. I came to shut down my computer and realized I hadn't finished my post. I did get quite a few rows knit tonight. I'm at 155 stitches. 30 more to increase - that is 60 rows. Now it's bed time!!