Hipster

When I open my iPad it shows me pictures from the past. This morning it was Lynn wearing her Hipster knit in Madelinetosh DK. She used the colour Night Bloom. 

The shawl was designed by Joji Locatelli and you can purchase the pattern on Ravelry.

I confess not being able to channel my inner hipster too often… But sometimes I knit pieces like this warn and fuss free shawl and I can feel myself instantly transported to the coolest, little known coffeeshop in town… 

Do you have an inner hipster?  

And if you don’t, do you have a bit of time and some worsted yarn around you? I promise this is the coolest quickest shawl you’ll ever knit. 

You have many yarn options for the shawl.

Malabrigo Rios

Hedgehog Merino DK

Hedgehog Tweedy

Madelinetosh Vintage

Rowan Cotton Cashmere or Softyak DK

Noro Akari

Lynda knit this Hipster as a store sample in Tosh Vintage.

My Hipster knit out of Hedgehog Merino DK. I used 3 skeins of DRK. I left off the fringes. I thought about tassels and never made it that far.

Please don’t get caught up in the fancy stitch and over think it. Just do as Joji tells you and it works. My suggestion is to cast on 30 stitches with scrap yarn and try the stitch. You will see that it isn’t hard.

I was up and dressed to head to the store but I couldn’t get out of our survey. The weather was also calling for more freezing rain so I called it a day. My plan was to work. I updated the website and a migraine hit. The afternoon was spent in bed. It was a waste of a day but I guess someone was telling me to rest. 

A few rows of knitting and then bed. I want to get there early to clean up the mess I made yesterday. 

Snow Day Tomorrow

I’m about to start the fifth colour. There should be a lot of knitting tomorrow because it looks like the store is going to be closed. The forecast isn’t looking good.

The pattern for the Grevillia Shawl is well written and easy to follow. You can’t go wrong with an Ambah O’Brien pattern.

My day started with a visit from Mr. UPS. He brought in a box from Spincycle. A restock of Dyed in the Wool and two brand new colours of Dream State.

Water Witch

Sex on the Beach

I put together this combination for The Shift (this is kit #108). All three skeins are Absolute Zero. I’m a bit obsessed with three skeins of the same colour. If you missed it, here is my latest Shift using three skeins of Ranunculus. 

The cowl is finished and needs to be blocked but I didn’t get pictures so here it is while I was casting off.

I’m not sure why I decided to start on the Dyed in the Wool wall but I did and it’s finished. The wall looks great but the rest of the store is a mess. I was throwing balls of Crazy Zauberball everywhere to make room. Then I started to put Crazy on another wall and there isn’t enough room for all the colours. Sigh. That’s Friday’s problem.

If the weather clears up tomorrow I will open the store but if it keeps going how it is now it will be a snow day. My car wasn’t happy with the snow today.

Six More Weeks

Laura Aylor has a new sweater pattern. You can purchase the pattern for Six More Weeks on Ravelry.

A cropped, A-line, top-down adaptation of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Hurry-Up Last Minute/Wishbone sweater.

Laura designed the sweater in Cascade 220 Superwash Grande and we have lots of colours in stock with more coming next week. We need a store sample in this yarn and this is the sweater. I hope Deidre has some free time for us.

Photos © Laura Aylor

This sweater is best worn with a good amount of positive ease. The sample shown is a size S and it’s being modeled with about 8 inches of ease, but could be worn with less, especially in the larger sizes, with a minimum of 2-3 inches.

I should be updating the website (we received Addi needles and Crazy Zauberball this morning) but I’m going to knit. I made it to the colours on my Grevillia Shawl. I want to get more rows finished before I show the colours. I’m not sold on them yet.

It looks like we’re getting bad weather tomorrow afternoon/evening into Thursday morning. If we have freezing then I could be late opening on Thursday.

Happy Family Day

We had lots of family time today. I hope you had a good day as well. There was lots of knitting time as well. My Nightshift is almost finished.

I was emailing with Hedgehog Fibres today and our order should be here by the beginning of March. The order will include new colours, a new yarn (Oh So Fine), colours we are missing as well as Fade Packs. These will be 5 skein kits - perfect for Joji’s La Prairie. I don’t know the colours that are coming but the packs could look like these.

I can’t wait to see Oh So Fine. The yarn sounds amazing. Here are a few of the colours that are coming.

The softest cloud of dreamy softness 18.5 micron merino, spun into a lofty and supple 2ply yarn. Light fingering weight at 425m/100g. Great for accessories, baby patterns, anything that requires soft and delicate hand. This base feel luxurious and decadent.

Gentle hand-wash recommended.

Colours shift beautifully from one to another. Randomly dyed to prevent striping or pooling, as much as possible, our yarns create variegated effect that looks good in plain stockinette or advanced stitch motifs.

Custom spun exclusively for Hedgehog Fibres and 100% mulesing free. Gentle hand wash recommended. Approx. 425m/100g, 100% Merino. Please note, although we take great care in photographing our yarns, colours may vary slightly from monitor to monitor.

Dad made banana bread muffins. Jackson had fun helping.

It’s hard to be a dog.

I have time for a few more rows and then off to bed. There are lots of orders to pack up and ship out tomorrow.

La Prairie

Today was the day to put together combinations for Joji Locatelli’s La Prairie. These kits are online and I will keep making more combinations. That is a chore for this week. I know that there will be lots more combinations in March when we received the new colours from Hedgehog and another shipment from Emma’s Yarns.

Photos © Joji Locatelli

I designed this cardigan to use a very special set of yarns that create a color sequence where one color fades into the next one. However, La Prairie can also be knitted in a solid color. Instructions for color changes are given separately. 

PRO TIP: If you don’t want to buy extra skeins for your size, you can always change the amount of colors you use. 
I give you detailed instructions on how and when to fade, so instead of buying a second skein of all 5 colors, you can add a 6th color and make each color band a little bit shorter 

SIZES 
This pattern has a different sizing than my usual, since it uses a large pattern repeat and I had limitations with different stitch counts. 
There are 6 sizes, with 6” 15 cm increments around the bust. Please refer to the table of measurements to choose the perfect size for you. 
Sizes are labeled 1 to 6, for bust circumferences of 30-68” 75-170 cm. 
Recommended ease: 4-10” 10-25cm. 
Shown in size 2 on a 36” 90 cm bust.

The pattern is purchased on Ravelry.

In the bubble that I live in (which can be a scary place) all skeins in a sweater are the same yarn base. For example, Emma’s Yarns Practically Perfect Sock or Madelinetosh Twist Light or Hedgehog Sock. This is my issue. There is no reason why you can’t combine yarns.

I was definitely thinking spring when I put these combinations together.

These are Party Packs from Sweetgeorgia. 5 skeins that look awesome together.

Dad and Lucy are on their way for dinner. After they leave I’m going to sit and knit all evening long. I still haven’t made it to the colours on my shawl. Maybe tomorrow.

Lady Aston Sock

Our good friend Kate Atherley has a new sock pattern. The Lady Aston sock pattern can be purchased on Ravelry.

This sock is worked top down. The patterning combines two of my favourite techniques—cables and lace—to a create a modern and elegant variation on a classic argyle. And because I love details like this, there’s a subtle but pleasing mirroring of the pattern placement on the two socks. 

The design features all of my favourite top-down sock features: a flap and gusset heel for best fit, with a band heel turn. I’ve applied a reinforcement pattern to both the heel flap and the turn, because we don’t just wear out the backs of our heels. And there’s a no-graft toe that fits well and saves you some fuss. 

The pattern is written to be worked on any type of needles: traditional or flexible DPNs, magic loop or two circulars. And I’ve included lots of tips, too! It was originally designed for a mystery KAL, and I’ve kept all the tutorial info in. If you’ve never made a patterned sock before, or even a top-down sock, this pattern will guide you all the way through the process! 

The pattern stitch is written and charted.

I would suggest 

Sweetgeorgia Tough Love Sock

Emma’s Practically Perfect Sock

Hedgehog Twist Sock

Malabrigo Ultimate Sock

Madelinetosh Twist Light

It’s a tough life.

They are ready for cookies.

I was getting ready to publish this post when I saw something on Twitter from Kate Atherley.

I don’t know how long the code is going to work for so don’t wait. 😀

Win a Bag of Rowan Felted Tweed

Welcome if this is your first time visiting the blog. I write about new yarns, new patterns, what I’m working on, new store samples, customer’s finished garments and I show lots of pictures of our dogs. You will want to keep checking back because you never know when we will announce a sale or give out a discount code. Welcome back to those of you who follow us regularly.

We love Rowan’s Felted Tweed yarn. It has been in the store since the day it was introduced and has always been one of our best selling yarns.

I have a bag of Felted Tweed in the colour 194 Delft that we are going to give away to one lucky customer. The contest is open to anyone in Canada and the US. We will ship it if you live out of town.

Ask any Rowan fan for their favourite yarn and there's a good chance it'll be Felted Tweed. Spun in a light DK weight, with a beautiful tweed effect and an amazing 50+ colours to choose from, it's a Fair Isle knitter's dream. But that's not all. The magical combination of 50% lightly-felted wool, 25% viscose and 25% alpaca makes it supremely blockable and a gorgeous option for lacework as a result. Or knit it in garter stitch for a drapey, squishable fabric that is cosy, but light and easy to wear. Choose from nature-inspired shades ranging from cool watery tones to warming cherry red and fiery ginger and prepare to fall in love!

Here are a few Felted Tweed pattern suggestions.

This vest is from the book Mode 4 Projects - Felted Tweed and is called Gianna. 

The Frozen Wrap and Camel Sweater are from Rowan’s Felted Tweed 4 Projects book.

How can you win the bag of yarn?

1. Leave a comment on this post with your first name and last initial, your hometown and your Ravelry name or Instagram name. If we don’t have your name we can’t contact you if you win.
2. In the comment please tell me what you would make with the Felted Tweed. This isn’t a test. It’s just for me to see what patterns customers are interested in. There are many, many suggests on Ravelry. Here is a link to 48 pages of patterns
3. Comments are moderated. They won’t show up until I add them to the post.
4. One comment per person please
5. No colour substitution

On Saturday March 4th at 6pm EST we will do a random draw (picking one name) to see who wins the bag of yarn.

Where do I leave the comment? Look at the bottom of the post.

It will say No Comments or 10 Comments or 30 Comments. Click on that and you can leave your information to try and win the bag of yarn.

Good Luck! Thank you again for visiting and I hope you come back soon.

Wedges

Stephen West has a new pattern. You can purchase the pattern for the Fragmentation Shawl on Ravelry.

Choose seven colors of fingering weight yarn to create this fragmented geometric shawl. This top-down shawl is composed of seven vertical wedges. Knit each wedge individually as you stripe your colors. Each new wedge is attached to the previous section using a simple modular technique, so you only work with one color at a time. You can easily customize the size by knitting more stripes for a larger shawl or simply stop each wedge section early for a smaller shawl. The pattern is written for seven colors, but you can use as many colors as you want for a stashbusting version. The squishy garter stitch is framed with I-cord edges, resulting in a beautiful large shawl size.

Photos © Stephen West

You can purchase the pattern individually or as an eBook.

Modular Coloring Shawls contains 10 new Westknits knitting patterns that will be released throughout the year. When you sign up for the e-book, you will receive the striking Fragmentation Shawl pattern. Then, enjoy surprise pattern updates as the shawls are revealed gradually throughout the spring and summer, culminating in the final collection reveal by the end of August. 

Each Modular Coloring Shawl includes an illustration of the shawl shape for you to color each section with colored pencils or markers. Create your own striped color story and think about the shawls as geometric landscapes for you to customize with color. These shawls are designed for single skeins and they are perfect stashbusters to help you spring clean your stash. Most of the patterns feature garter stitch and are great introductions to modular knitting, suitable for adventurous beginners and advanced knitters alike. 

The debut shawl of the collection, Fragmentation Shawl, includes a free step-by-step video tutorial demonstrating all of the techniques required to knit this shawl. The 10 patterns come in a range of different shapes and sizes with notes on how to customize the size too! Enjoy this coloring e-book of shawls and unleash your inner artist as we knit beautiful modular shawls together!

Cascade 220 Superwash Merino is looking good. The colours are all in order. We made it easier for you and I to reach the yarn. The top box is now storage.

I spoke to Lynn this afternoon and she said she was tired last night. She did a lot of work - thank you for your help Lynn.

Just as I was about to hit Publish I received an email from Spincycle. They have more yarn for us. The box should be here next week. There are 2 brand new colours of Dream State coming.

Water Witch

Sex on the Beach

Now a bit of knitting and Price is Right at Night. My Opa loved Price is Right. He watched it every day after he retired - it runs in the family.