It Rained

Thanks to everyone who came today. We had fun outside. Until the rain started. Last night it looked like we would make it until 2 or 3. Then at 10am Beth checked and it said 12:30. It was around then when the rain started. Unfortunately yarn and rain aren’t friends so we had to pack up. 

Cinnabar is finished and ready to be blocked.

Dad and Lucy helped us get ready this morning. You can’t see it well in the picture but dad tied her to the basketball net with an extension cord. Whatever is available.

Thank you Lynn, Beth and dad for helping today. They hustled to get everything set up this morning and then moved even faster to put it all away.

Now it’s time to put my feet up and knit. I picked up my Rock It Tee. Easy, mindless knitting.

Happy Friday

We should receive a box of Roan from Primrose this week with 10 brand new colours including

Midnight

Rosewood

Zodiac

Soot

I have knit two shawls with Roan and the yarn is gorgeous. There could be another shawl cast on with Roan this week because Stephen West has a new shawl pattern coming on Tuesday. The pattern calls for 1000 yards of DK weight yarn - all one colour.

From Stephen

This Tuesday, I'm releasing a new textured shawl pattern called the Dustland Shawl. This DK weight semi-circle uses four skeins of DK weight yarn in one color. Yes, I designed a shawl in only one color! Who am I? The simple textural stitches yearn for simplicity.
 

This pattern is great for adventurous beginners!

If you are coming to the sale tomorrow we have the new Tosh Wool + Cotton that would work. We will also have some SweetGeorgia Superwash DK on sale.

Lynn and I set up a table to see just how much yarn fits on one table. There will be lots of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock. These are 50 gram skeins that we have tied together to make 100grams. These are on sale for $20 each - buy 5 get the 6th for free.

We have blue bags filled with sock yarn. One bag fills one table. There will be four tables of sock yarn ready at 10am. Don’t worry - we have more in the store so as the tables empty we will be bringing more out.

We will have our Nightshift (knit in Uneek Worsted) hanging with lots of kits at an amazing price.

The plan right now is 12 tables filled with yarn and kits. 

If you are looking for needles we will have Addi Rockets and Addi Rocket Squared outside. The other needles are hanging on the wall inside and we can’t move them out.

I took a few pictures just before we left the store.

Kits for Stephen West’s Quadrangle Spires.

Now it’s bed time. I’m going to be up early in the morning.

The weather looks good until about 2pm. Then we might see rain. If it starts we will be packing up early.

Coming Soon

We had a visit from Mr. UPS this morning. Box one was from Turtlepurl. What pretty colours of sock yarn. 

We will have a few baskets of Turtlepurl outside on Saturday. Speaking of which - the weather looks like it’s going to be good.

The second box was from Hedgehog and there is another box coming from Hedgehog tomorrow. It missed the truck this morning.

We made kits for Only Good Vibes and will have them outside on Saturday. This shawl is beautiful

We’ve made kits for Gamut too.

Photo © Andrea Mowry

I had fun coming up with different colour combinations for Illuminate and we will be bringing them out on Saturday as well.

Coming soon!

Top Down

Illuminate went live this morning. Wow. You can purchase the pattern on Andrea’s website.

Ethereal mohair glows against the deep and moody backdrop of merino wool to create a round yoke jumper that dissolves into stripes. Illuminate, the 4th annual DreaReneeKnits x Magpie Fibers x Spincycle Yarns Rhinebeck collaborations sweater, is knit from the top down (meaning you can try it on as you go and add length to suit your own personal style!), beginning with the collar. The circular yoke is adorned with stranded colorwork (worked from a CHART ONLY), and then you will separate the sleeves placing them on hold while the body is finished with alternating stripes. The sleeves are then returned to the needle, picking up stitches for the underarm for a totally seamless sweater!

Photos © Andrea Mowry

Kits are available on the website. If you want to put together your own colours I made a chart showing the amount of yarn needed.

Tonight’s post is going to be short. I was posting on the Toronto Knitters Guild Instagram account today. Make sure you check out their latest post about the Frolic.

Now a few rows of knitting. Cinnabar is almost finished.

Illuminate

Andrea Mowry has a new sweater pattern coming out tomorrow. The picture is from Andrea’s website - you can purchase the pattern there - she usually releases them in the morning. Follow on Instagram to see the sweater knit up in different colours. I put together some combinations today and will add kits to the website tomorrow afternoon after I see the yardages.

Sarah is away at the cottage and messaged me that it has to be our next group project 😘

I could have made combinations all afternoon. I tried to make something for everyone. After I know how many balls are needed I will be able to put a few more together. There are some colours where we might have enough for one kit but I didn’t take pictures until I am sure. 

Not a fan of mohair/silk but want to make the sweater?? I’ve seen a few projects on Instagram where the knitter was using a fingering weight instead of the mohair/silk. Once the pattern is released you will be able to see projects on Ravelry. I am sure that there will be many yarn options.

Tomorrow I am taking over the Toronto Knitters Guild Instagram account. I wrote a few posts this morning thinking that I could schedule them. Long story short - I can’t make it work so I’m going to be copying and pasting tomorrow. I tried a few different things and then decided it wasn’t worth any more of my effort when it’s only for one day. I didn’t want to go bed frustrated.

There will be two shipments coming this week - Turtlepurl and Hedgehog. We’ll be busy unpacking for Saturday. 

Now to my knitting. I’m on the border with 4 rows to go. I should have it off the needles for Saturday. It won’t be blocked and the ends won’t be sewn in but you’ll be able to see how the colours work. Then I will be able to start a new project (or two).

Rainy Day

It rained all morning at the store. Thank goodness we cancelled our outdoor shopping. I’m wet from taking curbside pick ups outside - the yarn wouldn’t have been happy to be outside today.

I was reading through Stephen’s new pattern this morning and he has a video showing you how to interchange yarns for any of his fingering weight shawls.

Stephen also made a video about Quadrangle Spires showing how the colours play.

 

I pulled these three colours of Zauberball Crazy - they would look amazing for Stephen’s shawl. 

-1699

-2095

-2136

The main colour could be black, grey, navy, purples, teals….

Have you signed up for the Faux Frolic? There are a lot of great vendors this year. 

I will be taking over the Toronto Knitters Guild Instagram Feed on Tuesday. 

Now some knitting. Dad and Lucy have left. The dishwasher is going and my shawl is calling.

I’ve found my next project

Stephen West has a new shawl called Quadrangle Spires.

Photos © Stephen West

You can purchase the pattern on Stephen’s website. I’ve downloaded the pattern and it is long. Stephen has a lot of pictures to explain the steps. 

This architecturally inspired wrap begins in the center with four triangular sections that modularly join together to form a square. Each section is seamlessly picked up from the previous section. Once the central square foundation is created, stitches are picked up along two corners of the shape for the wingspan spires. You can customize the final length of your shawl by binding off early or knit more repeats for a long luxurious wrap. I featured three skeins of West Wool Bicycle as the main color with six Spincycle colorways for a fascinating striped knitting experience. Customize the contrast however you like by choosing similar types of self-striping yarns or dive into your stash and make those colors pop! 

Watch my Westknits video here to see the Quadrangle Spires shawl up close as I talk about the construction of the fabric and help you choose colors for this pattern.

This is a true work of art. The yarn is a fingering weight for the lines with 6 colours of Dyed in the Wool.

 

I brought skeins of yarn home and took them outside for pictures. These are the colours that Stephen used. I love the shawl and this could be my colourway but there are a few more options.

These colours are 

• Neveruary A
• The Meadows C
• Overshadow A
• The Saddest Place C
• Dead Reckoning C
• The Family Jewels B
• Le Petit Lambswool - Dark Blue Black

For this one I took out Dead Reckoning and put in Idle Nights E. 

You could easily use a dark grey Le Petit Lambswool for the lines.

• Ghost Ranch A
• Mississippi Marsala B
• Castaway B
• Wololo A
• Mississippi Marsala A
• Shades of Earth E
• Le Petit Lambswool Dark Blue Turquoise

These are the same two with different line colours

• Wololo A (this is a different skein than the one I used for the rust colourway)
• Nostalgia C
• Miss Me A
• Midsommar CC
• Wallflower A
• Cold Comfort A
• Le Petit Lambswool Light Pink and then Green Pink Turqouise

This is the same colours but I used Midsommar C.

I’m very torn on which I like the best. I think it’s the blue because I see it finished. Of course I’ll play with a few more colours. In the pattern Stephen also mentions using Zauberball Crazy.

Mr. UPS came today with new stitch markers from Purlsmith.

The packaging is so cute. What a great gift idea for a knitter in your life or for yourself.

All day I have been upset because the weather showed very little rain tomorrow. Then late this afternoon the forecast changed and it shows a lot of rain tomorrow. I feel much better. Now a few rows on my shawl before bed.