Mittens

There was a chill in the air when I came to work this morning. My hands were cold and I thought about mittens.

Sometimes winter catches you by surprise and you need a pair of mittens, quick! These are a perfect quick knit or a blank canvas for mitten fun!

These are the World's Simplest Mittens from Tin Can Knits. The pattern is free and you can use many different thicknesses of yarn - fingering, dk, worsted and chunky. These are sized from toddler to adult large.

The Antler Mittens is another Tin Can Knits pattern. You can purchase it on Ravelry.

These mittens are squishy and warm to keep out the cold! A bold antler cable travels from generous cuffs to fingertips. They are perfect for a winter’s night stroll or a rousing snowball fight.

These are sized from toddler to adult large and are knit in tosh chunky. We have lots of tosh chunky in stock and it is on sale. 

We have kits from Fleece Artist for the Favourite Soft Mitts. These are knit with a strand of wool and a strand of mohair held together. The yarn is hand dyed and no two pairs will be the same. I have added the kits to the website and more kits will be arriving soon.

I was busy this morning adding to the website. Thrum mitts are available online as well. These kits are from Fleece Artist - the main yarn and the roving are hand dyed.

Check out the Yarn Harlot's blog post on Thrum Mitts.

Thrum refers to a little wisp of unspun fleece or roving that is knit into the mittens every so often to create a beautiful speckled pattern.

If you want to choose your own colours, roving is on the way from Fleece Artist and should be here by the beginning of November. We will have natural, undyed roving as well as hand dyed roving. I don't know the colours - I asked them to send us 25 pretty skeins.

There are many patterns on Ravelry for Thrum Mitts. 

It's time to watch Survivor. Alex and I discuss Survivor every Thursday when she gets in to work. As she was leaving today I commented 'I wonder who is going to do something stupid and get voted out tonight' and she replied 'they are all capable of doing that'. So true!

Felted Christmas Stocking

I visited my friend Trish today and she washed the grey out of my hair. It gave me time to cast on a new project.

Yes, another Nightshift. I am using Noro Ito in colours 16 and 17. It is the perfect project for knitting on the plane because I have the pattern memorized. It also makes for good pictures. A one coloured garment doesn't add much excitement until it is finished. I can take a picture of this every day and it will look different.

Someone asked today about my Felted Christmas Stocking pattern. You can find it in a very old blog post. I wrote this pattern 12 years ago. Yikes. This is an old blog post. You need 3 balls of Noro Kureyon and 7mm needles. You can knit the stocking in Ito too. If you are going to felt it then I would suggest 8mm needles. When I get home I will try it with Ito on a smaller needle to see how it would look without felting.

Dad and Beth have been busy watching puppy cam. Every time dad walks in the house he asks Beth to bring it up on the computer. So far Beth has taken interest in two puppies. Her first choice is brown and white. The other is cream. His name (both are boys) is going to be Boscoe. That was the name of my dad's pet calf when he first came to Canada. It will be fun to watch in a few weeks when they start running around and playing.

Tincanknits

We're almost unpacked. YAY!! We have a few yarns to count and garments to hang. Lynn was hustling today.

There are some shipments on the way to us.

The new Flight of Stitch Markers from Cocoknits should be here by the end of the month. I can't wait. These will be perfect for your knitting bag! They are seriously cute.

For anyone who’s not sure which style of Cocoknits stitch marker to try first, here’s a handy sampling. Just like a wine or craft beer tasting 'flight', our Flight of Stitch Markers offers a wide variety of styles and sizes to experiment with! 

Each of the five types are in rainbow colors - ideal for the Cocoknits Method - and come in their own little Kraft paper tube of 24 markers each for easy storage and transport. Perfect for gifting, beginner knitters, or anyone curious about branching out in their marker array.

• Made of nylon coated steel - they cling to magnets

• Split Ring markers - hook onto stitches

• Triangle stitch markers accommodate up to US 9 / 5.5mm needle.

• Small stitch markers accommodate up to US 7 / 4.5mm needle.

• Original stitch markers accommodate up to US 13 / 9mm needle.

• Jumbo stitch markers accommodate up to US 19 / 16mm needle.

• Each bundle is 5 boxed sets of markers

• each style includes 24 markers - 4 each of 6 colors

• 120 total markers

Addi FlexiFlips XL - longer and bigger sizes. These could be here by the end of the week.

Fans of our original FlexiFlips can rejoice, as everyone’s favorite flexible double points are now available in a longer and larger option.  Cast-on to an effortless new method of knitting socks, cuffs, hats, and many of other projects which are worked in the round, with the addi® FlexiFlips XL. Developed by "CraSy" Sylvie Rasch in collaboration with addi® and made specifically for North America, these specially designed 26cm circulars (4.25" tips with 1.6" cord) rest comfortably in the hand, and act as flexible double pointed needles. Easy to use, stitches are simply distributed over two needles, and then knit with the third - resulting in only two needle changes per row. 

Featuring the same dual-tip design as the popular addi® FlipStix, the FlexiFlips XL feature both an addi® Rocket tip and an addi Turbo® tip. You will always have the right needle, when you need it. Overly versatile, FlexiFlips XL also make great cable needles.  Patent Pending.

These are available in sizes 4mm, 4.5mm, 5mm, 5.5mm, 6mm, 6.5mm, 7mm, 8mm.

Are you looking for an easy sweater to whip up for fall? Take a look at Flax from tincanknits. The pattern is free on Ravelry.

The pattern has 17 sizes from small children to large adults.

This sweater is worked in the round from the top down. You cast on at the collar, the yoke is knit, sleeve stitches are placed on hold on waste yarn, the body is completed, then sleeves are knit last. 

It is knit in worsted weight yarn and we have many options.

tincanknits write great, easy to follow patterns. Check out their whole collection.

It's time for a new project. I'm getting on a plane Saturday night and I don't want to take Newleaf with me. There are so many stitches on holders and needles hanging everywhere. I'll show you what I'm making in a few days when you can see how the colours are working up.

Fleece Festival

We had a great day in Woodstock yesterday. The weather was perfect. I think it might be the first year that we haven't had rain on either Friday or Saturday.

The ladies finished their sweaters. They look amazing. We decided that 4 weeks to knit a fingering weight sweater is a major accomplishment. We won't try that again.

Sarah is wearing Carlina knit in Le Petit Lambswool and Dyed in the Wool.

Lynn is wearing Newleaf knit in Le Petit Lambswool and Dyed in the Wool.

Wannietta is wearing Carlina knit in Cottage Donegal Tweed and Dyed in the Wool.

Thanks to Sarah, Lynn and Wannietta for all their help. A great big thanks to Cathy who packed the van (Cathy is the master of packing as much as possible into the smallest space) and for working in the store.

Today was spent watching football with a bit of knitting thrown in. It'll be another early night - I want to get to work early and start unpacking boxes. It's time for the store to be back in order - we've had boxes for over a month. And we have new samples that need to be on display.

Puppies

I keep forgetting to share very big news. Our puppy has been born.

We have pick of the litter and get to choose on November 16. They were born early Tuesday morning.

Next week we will be able to start watching them on puppy cam.

They will be ready to go on December 7. Our puppy is going off to boot camp and we should get him/her on New Years Day. From our trainer.

My board and train program promises, you take home a well socialized, well mannered, pre-trained puppy who understands and appreciates household rules and boundaries.

Our breeder recommended we do this - she even sent one of her own puppies.

Lynn and I are home from Woodstock. I didn't get many pictures of the booth. Dad came with us to help get everything inside. We sent him home before us and he said that the traffic from Brantford to Ancaster was bad so we were rushing to leave.

My sweater didn't get finished but it will be on display in Woodstock. I'm going to wear Guthrie. It was too warm to wear in Kitchener but tomorrow should be the perfect day.

Lynn is casting hers off. Sarah and Wannietta should have theirs finished as well.

Now it's bed time for me. We're going to be on the road at 6am.

Montana Mountain Cowl

Beth has been working on her Montana Mountain Cowl but it won't be finished in time for the Fleece Festival. Lucky for us, Diana finished hers. She used Le Petit Lambswool and Dyed in the Wool. The colour combination is great.

Diana has knit a few other projects with Dyed in the Wool and had quite a few small balls of leftovers. She started the cowl with these but ran short. We added in a full skein with very similar colours and you can't tell the difference.

From Andrea Mowry

If I were to pick my favorite cowl style, it is definitely the Moebius cowl. It is perfect for colorwork projects because the floats are hidden inside, and it is so easy to style. Just pop it on to finish any outfit! The Montana Mountain Cowl uses the Mosaic method to add color and texture to this engaging knit!

New books arrived today. 

I think/hope we're ready for the Woodstock Fleece Festival. Here are a few tips if you are coming to the show

- trust me, there is lots of yarn. If you don't like lines or crowds, wait until noon to come. There will still be lots for you to see. If booths sell out of something, most are more than willing to ship it to you after the show
- bring lunch with you. Then you don't have to stand in line.
- wear something that you have knit. It's always fun to see completed projects.
- if you see something you like, mark down the booth you saw it in. I can't tell you how many times we get frantic people at the end of the day because they forgot where they saw something
- go through your Ravelry library and make notes of yarn that you are interested in. If there is a certain pattern, print that pattern and bring it with you. Also bring information on the yarn. What it's made of. Tension. Yardage. That will make it easier for me and other booths to help you substitute. When you come in the store I can do it on the computer but we have limited Internet access at the show.
- please have patience.

What are we taking??

Plus more!!!

Looking at my pictures I'm starting to think that we have too much packed.

Now it's time for laundry and then a few minutes with my feet up watching baseball and football.