Is spring really here?

The weather outside is fabulous. Almost all the snow is gone from our parking lot and the sun is shining. You can't be anything but happy on a day like today.

I am almost finished sleeve one and ready to pick up sleeve two. Since I dislike sewing I picked up the stitches and worked the sleeves down from the top.
Alexis knit us another Tulip Cardigan. This time we used bright colours that can be worn by a boy or girl.
This is the adult version of the Tulip Cardigan that Rhonda knit. Every picture I took came out terrible but today I got one that shows the colours. Rhonda-you hurt my feelings by asking if my mom sewed the buttons on the cardigan-I did it because she wasn't home yet!! If she had been home then I would have asked her to do it.

Samantha asked me a hard question-who do I want to win Survivor? At this point Ozzy deserves it. It will be interesting with the merge to see how things play out between Ozzy and James.

Don't forget that Hell's Kitchen is on tonight. I am going to ask the same question that I ask every season-if you are going on Hell's Kitchen how come you didn't learn to make Risotto? Every season Gordon is yelling at them about their Risotto.

There are going to be some changes for the tent sale this summer. It isn't going to be in a tent. We are renting St John's Parrish hall which is just up the street. This way we don't have to bring everything in at night, there are no weather issues and they have lots of parking. The dates are not set in stone but we are looking at July 8, 9, 10. I will give better details once the hall is booked.

Flags, Feather and Fan

Mom and dad arrived home from Myrtle Beach on Tuesday night. While there they went flag shopping and came home with enough to get us through the summer. These are the spring flags and my dad is very impressed with himself. He put them up and then made me go look at them. Here is a picture so you can be impressed as well-small things make him happy.
This is the Feather and Fan cardigan from Classic Elite. Lynda sent it to me at the beginning of the week but I had to sew buttons on it. (Yes Wannietta and Rhonda, I did it myself!!) The indoor picture is a truer colour but the outdoor picture shows the cardigan off better.


We are receiving more yarns for the Knitter's Frolic.
From Fiesta there are new colours of Baby Boom sock yarn.
We are also carrying Oceanwind Knits fingering weight yarn.

I have started one front of my Noro Silk Garden lite cardigan. Lots of time watching tv this week-it's okay to do that if you are knitting. :)
-CSI Miami-you would think that with the writers strike there would have been lots of time to come up with something better than that
-American Idol-I wasn't impressed but Dolly Parton songs wasn't an easy task
-Hell's Kitchen-there is nothing bad to say about that
-Big Brother-are these people idiots? There are never going to get James out of the house
-Survivor-merge next week

Appledore

As many of you know I love Appledore knit in Cotton Jeans from RYC. This is Maggi and Lise from my Thursday night class. They are proudly showing off their amazing jackets.

I do have some knitting to report. I am working on my cardigan in Silk Garden Lite. I finished the back last night. Somewhere in the back of my head I think I will have it done for the Frolic at the end of the month-I better get going.

For the past week I have been having some weird, weird dreams. Last night I decided to go back to high school and one of my classes was 'How to Knit'. In the dream I did know how to knit and that caused many problems with my teachers (there were two men teaching the class and neither one could knit).

Here are a couple of pairs of shoes that I bought while away. I have these in black and hot pink. Thank you Franco Sarto for doing some great shoes this spring.

Who can pass up a pair of black patent shoes?

Home again with lots of pictures

A very special parcel arrived in the store while I was away. KAUNI is here!!! The yarn looks great. While I was pricing it on Friday and Saturday (there is a lot of it) people were pulling it out of my hands to look at it.

The conference in Chicago was amazing. I came home with lots of ideas running through my head. I met yarn shop owners from all over the US. We had time to discuss different ideas that work in our stores.

On Monday night at the welcome reception I met Amy Butler. Amy designs amazing fabrics and I became familiar with her name through some knitting bags she designed. I am going out tomorrow to buy some of her fabrics for quilting.

On Wednesday afternoon we visited Lorna's Laces. People come in the store and question the price of hand painted yarns. Spend a couple of hours with a hand painter and you will understand. It isn't just the dying of the yarn. It has to steam for an hour, hang to dry, then it is re skeined.

This is Beth Casey the owner of Lorna's Laces painting some yarn for us.

The conference was put on by Yarn Market News which is a division of Vogue Knitting. The goodie bags we got were amazing.
-knitting needles from Lantern Moon, Denise and Addi
-needle cases from Lantern Moon and Della Q
-balls of yarn
-books
-a brand new Namaste knitting bag


Shopping in Chicago was great. I took two suitcases with me that were pretty empty. Thank goodness. Between the goodie bags and my new shoes (five pairs) they were very heavy coming home.








This is a picture outside of out gate on Thursday afternoon at O'Hare. I posted from the airport and could have posted again because I sat there for so long. It was 7pm before we got on the plane. Then the pilot came on to tell us there was luggage on the plane with no passenger so they had to find it and take it off. Then we had to de-ice. I finally made it home to Ancaster at midnight.

Last night Beth and I watched the TV shows she taped while I was away. The season finale of Celebrity Apprentice was sad because I wanted Trace to win but you can't fault Donald choosing Piers.

Has anyone been watching Oprah's The Big Give? These people are incredibly stupid. They were given $100,000 and had 24 hours to give it away. They couldn't give cash but had to buy things. Also, they could only give $500 to any one person and only $10,000 to any one location (like a hospital). Out of seven people only one managed to give away the whole $100,000. One lady only managed to give away $16,500.

Red Carpet Lounge

I am sitting at O'Hare airport in Chicago-luckily in the Red Carpet Lounge where there is free internet access. For the past few days I have been getting terrible migraines. The maid woke me at 8am this morning-my check out was noon but she thought she should check if there was anyone in the room. I tried going back to sleep but couldn't. It is cold with wet snow in Chicago so I decided to change my flight to get out earlier. There was no way I was going to walk around downtown Chicago in this weather. I should have tried to make it for the 1:15 flight but was afraid of traffic so I choose the 3:45 flight. It is now 3:32 and they are saying my flight will be leaving at 5:30 (which happens to be 1/2 hour before my original flight). As you can guess I am not a happy camper. My head is killing me and I just want to get home to my own bed.

My workshops were great. I learned about marketing, advertising, managing my time, changing the layout of the store, utilizing the internet and more that I have already forgotten.

Chicago is a city that everyone should visit. You have to love a city with not one but two Macys that are both seven stories. There is also an amazing Nordstroms. Cheesecake Factory and California Pizza Kitchen always make me happy as well. My hotel was very lacking. It is called the Inn of Chicago but it is really a Best Western redone. I don't think I need to write anything else on that subject.

While I am typing, I checked united.com. My new flight is now 7 minutes after my original flight. Good thing I paid the fee to change!!! I'm off to talk with customer service and find out what is going on here.

BTW Noro Kureyon sock yarn arrived yesterday. Jane has taken home a ball to play with-we should have a sample pair by next week.

Chicago Day One

I am posting from my iPod touch. Sorry no pictures until I get home.
The flight was uneventful-long enough for a drink and then we were here. My hotel is described as a 'boutique'. Very nice but the rooms are small! There isn't much room to maneuver in the bathroom. Normally the tv is on a stand at the end of the bed. The room is so small that the bed almost touches both walls-the tv is beside the end of the bed.
Nordstrom's is across the street. :) Shopping today and the conference starts tonight.
gotta run-my visa is ready to go!!

Knitting Catastrophe

I was happily crocheting around my Jane Thornley shawl yesterday and then all hell broke loose. I noticed some strands of yarn that were joined in two different spots. What was going on? Then all of a sudden I saw it-somehow I had dropped about 10 stitches. To do the shaping you are casting off 10 stitches at the beginning of every row. Somehow I had dropped a stitch while doing a cast off. Of course I am now many, many inches past the spot, completely done my knitting and almost done my crochet. I really, really wanted to yell, swear and cry but I had people in the store. I calmly used a crochet hook to pick up the stitches, recast them off and continued on with my crochet.

I finished it last night while watching American Idol. What a boring night-nobody stood out. Big Brother was great. Matt was not expecting to be back doored.

I have picked up the cardigan in Silk Garden Lite again. One sleeve is done and I am at the armhole shaping on the back. I will get lots of knitting done this weekend. Big Brother and Survivor tonight. Then March Madness over the weekend-this is the best sporting weekend of the year. College basketball all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Since I will be busy knitting and watching tv, I probably won't do another post before I leave for Chicago. Have a happy Easter weekend and I will check in late next week when I get home. How many pairs of shoes am I going to find there?

Knitting progress

I actually have some knitting to report. The knitting on my Jane Thornley shawl is done. I am now crocheting around it. I hope to get most of it done tonight-fingers crossed.

The past week in the store has been very busy-no complaining-but that takes away from knitting and blogging time.

I have exciting news-we are now carrying Classic Elite yarns. Right now we have three yarns in stock-Alpaca Sox, Premiere and Soft Linen. More yarns will be coming for fall (when I find more room in the store.) Lynda is knitting The Feather and Fan cardigan out of Soft Linen for a store sample.

A new shipment came in today of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Socks. Unpacking all these amazing colours is starting to get to me. I might have to take some and knit it while away in Chicago next week. In skeins we received
-Edgewater
-Pilsen
-Apple Hill
-Huron
-Fresh Stipe
-Irving Park

In kits we received
-Newtown
-Neon
-Pine
-Cranberry
-Pink Blossom
-Turquoise
-Edgewater
-Butterscotch
-Hawaii
-Lilac
-Bittersweet
-Tuscany
-Cool
-Sandridge
-Irving Park
-Charcoal
-Iris Garden
-Watercolor
-Forest

A shipment of Dream in Color Baby arrived Friday afternoon. Unfortunately they are out of the yarn until May so we couldn't get all the colours we wanted. We have about 12 different colours in stock with about 15 more coming in May. Jane finished the shawl and brought it to work today. It is beautiful but I am having her block it once more to make it a bit longer. She was afraid to overblock it but I think the bigger the better.

I have set up an assembly line in the basement for making kits for the Tulip Cardigan. We roll the skein into a ball and then measure off the smaller amounts needed and roll into a smaller ball. We know there must be a better way but can't think of one. We have tried some different things but ended up wasting yarn. The dogs and I are off to roll more yarn.

Socks

I just got the phone call from mom. "When are you going to update your blog?" She didn't see that I did a post yesterday but to make her happy I am doing another one now.

The Knitter's Frolic is coming up on April 26 in Toronto. There is a market on Saturday and workshops are running Saturday and Sunday. We are trying to get samples of new yarns knit up for the show. These are two pairs of socks that Lynda knit for us. Yes, I could have knit them but this way they are finished and I don't have to worry about it.

My pictures came out too bright-the socks are hanging at the front door and the sun is out today. I could complain that I didn't get good pictures but it is amazing to have sun so I won't.

This is Monkey knit out of Baby Boom from Fiesta in the Clematis colourway.

This is Pomatomus knit out of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Socks-Tuscany colourway. I love this pattern and seeing it knit in person did not disappoint me.

Jane is knitting like crazy on the Oakleaf Shawl for the store. On Monday she was almost finished the body so I am hoping she will be done by this Monday. We are almost out of the Baby from Dream in Color. I called today and put in an emergency order for everything they had in stock. We have about eight colours coming that will be here next week. The rest of the colours won't be here until May.

The new season of American Idol really started last night. We are down to the final 12. We have an interesting group of contestants. Last night they sang John Lennon and/or Paul McCartney songs. The country singer really needs to go. We taped it and then watched the whole two hour show in under one hour-it is amazing how much better it is when you don't have to listen to Ryan or watch commercials.

Snow

Every day I tell myself that I need to do a blog post and then it is bed time. Korey and I are working on getting new products up on the website. All the Rowan yarns and books should be up now. We still need to get up the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Socks and Dream in Colour yarns. We also have lots of patterns to add.

The snow over the weekend was incredible. I didn't open the store on Saturday. I could have gone to work but would have sat knitting. Instead I spent the day winding balls of yarn for Tulip kits.

Alexis knit a Tulip Cardigan for the store. I searched some of the finished projects on Ravelry and saw some in darker colours. When I handed the kit to Alexis, she was very doubtful but when it was done she loved the colours.
This is my Jane Thornley wrap. All of a sudden I realized that I need to get it finished. I am going to Chicago on March 23 for a conference and want to take it with me. I am now decreasing so the rows are going faster (not quite fast enough though). When the knitting is done I will crochet around the edge to make it neat.

This is my baby sweater out of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton. The back is done and the front is a couple of rows from the neck shaping.
The parking lot at my store isn't very happy. The back has piles and piles of snow filling at least four parking spots.

I stepped away to help some customers and just read through this-it sounds like something a 7 year old would write-sorry. My mind is spinning in too many directions!!

What is with the snow?

What is with the snow? Some of you (ie Phyllis in the Yukon) are laughing because of our complaining about a little snow but seriously, is it ever going to end?

Fiesta Yarn's website has been overhauled. You can now see all their colours and the new yarns including Baby Boom, the new sock yarn. One of my knitters is working in this yarn so we will have a pair of socks for you to feel when you visit the store.

I started another Fake Isle on Saturday afternoon and finished it on Sunday while waiting for the Nascar race to start.

Another box arrived today from Lorna's Laces. All of our Little Can of Paint kits were gone but today's box included kits in
-Poppy
-Bee Stripe
-Mt Creek
-Gold Hill
-Glenwood

In skeins, but not in the kit, we received
-Winona
-Rainbow
-Mt Creek
-Gold Hill
-Watercolor
-Jungle Stripe
-Tickled Pink

Pictures of my knitting!!

The hat is called Fake Isle-you can download the pattern from MagKnits. Sarah was knitting it in class on Thursday night so I decided to knit one over the weekend. It took one ball of Noro Kureyon and half a skein of Cascade 220. It was very easy to do and would make a great class for teaching Fair Isle knitting (it is on my to do list for fall). Beth has decided that since it fits her head I should give it to her.
This is sleeve one of my Noro Silk Garden Lite Cardigan. I made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to start anything new but the colour and pattern were calling my name. The pattern is from the new Sirdar Eco Wool magazine. It is a perfectly plain cardigan with garter stitch collar. I started knitting it last weekend while watching the Daytona 500. All my knitting required paying attention and this didn't. (See, you can always justify starting a new project).

I just finished unpacking a box from Dream in Color. This is the Oakleaf 3/4 shawl knit out of their new Baby Lace Weight Yarn. The yarn is 100% Superfine Australian Merino Superwash. There are 700 yards on a 4oz skein. Two skeins are needed for this shawl (pattern is free when you purchase the yarn.)

I received three skeins each of the following colours
-Blue Lagoon
-Visual Purple
-Deep Sea Flower
-Ruby River
-Dusky Aurora
-Lunar Zazzle
-Pansy Golightly
-Punky Fuschia

I am just placing another order with Dream in Color and have ordered
-Spring Tickle
-Flamingo Pie
-Cloud Jungle
We can order any colour, just let me know what you would like.

Attention all sock knitters

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock just arrived!!
We have individual skeins in
-Sweetie
-Childs Play
-Flamingo Stripe
-Tuscany
-Iris Garden
-Bucks Bar
-Baltic Sea (pictured)

And in the Little Can of Pain
-Baltic Sea
-Layette
-Black Purl
-Happy Valley
-Lorikeet
-Pin Stripe

More colours are coming (fourteen to be exact) and we can special order any colour. Dying time is usually 8-12 weeks. See all the colours that are available.

We also received some great sock patterns from Wildhorse Farm Designs. Here is a sample.

I really need to get over my second sock syndrome!!

Winding yarn

Today was Family Day in Ontario. The store wasn't open but I was there winding balls of yarn for the Tulip Cardigan kit. I was there for over 6 hours. A couple skeins were not properly rewound after dying and I had to wind them by hand. Then my ball winder was acting up.

I browsed the pictures on Ravelry for the Tulip cardigan to come up with some ideas for colour combinations. This is 3 shades of blue, a green, charcoal, brown, burgundy and lighter brown/peaches which is the border colour. I started during daylight but didn't get finished until it was dark so the colours don't show the way they should.

This uses the new bright yellow and bright yellow/orange combination along with blue, green, red, purple, lime and turquoise. The purple is the border colour.


On Saturday Beth and I went plant shopping. We are having a hard time keeping the humidity up in our house so this is one fix. I see that they are a bit blurry-sorry.


I did get some knitting accomplished yesterday during the Daytona 500. Hopefully there will be pictures later this week. The race had some very boring spots but I liked the outcome. Last night Beth wanted to watch Knight Rider. Of course we watched it as kids so we wanted to see the remake. Bad TV. Then we watched Dexter. A very disturbing show. Now we are watching TV that the whole family can watch-Deal or No Deal. My parents love this show. Dad should be calling any minute from Myrtle Beach telling us that the lady shouldn't take the deal.

Shepherd Socks and more boxes

When I was at the trade show in January I ordered some Lorna's Laces Shepherds Sock yarn. I called there today with a question and some of my colours are ready and are being shipped. Also in the shipment will be some kits in a paint can that include two skeins of yarn and a basic sock pattern.
Lorna's Laces distributes a line of patterns called iKnitiative. I first found these patterns on Ravelry and they will be here with the yarn in a couple of weeks. This is called the Fair and Square wrap that I will be knitting one day (LOL) in Tahki Donegal Tweed and Noro Silk Garden.


My dad has a job here at the store-garbage man. We pile empty boxes outside and he picks them up. He was here the other day to pick up my boxes-unfortunately he had been in South Carolina for two snow storms and the boxes were under a foot of snow. He got out as many as he could and was coming back today for more. Lucky him-we had more snow last night. He brought a shovel and dug them all out. He isn't going to be pleased to hear that I have more boxes again. A shipment of Namaste bags came and not a day too soon. We were all out of the new Malibu and Laguna bags but the store is nicely stocked again. Then the UPS driver came with a large boxe of Rowan.

I wrote this and then got busy unpacking boxes and helping customers. While doing this the UPS driver came back with more boxes-this time from Dream in Color. There were 2 boxes of Classy that included the new colours for spring-the 400 series. These are amazing-I see a tulip cardigan. We also have the pattern for the adult Tulip Cardigan. There are 5 sizes (XS-XL). You need 5 skeins for the XS and S. For the M-XL you will need 6 skeins.

The new season of Big Brother started last night. We taped it but didn't have time to watch it so now we have something to watch tonight. The Apprentice, Survivor and Big Brother-it doesn't get any better. Celebrity Apprentice has been great. The celebrities want to win but they have a career to go back to. The fighting between some of the celebrities has been hilarious.

Kauni

Ravelry is a very bad thing!! About a month ago Janet was in the store and mentioned the Autumn Leaves cardigan by Ruth Sorenson. Of course I orderd the pattern. It is knit in Kauni yarn which was made famous by The Yarn Harlot. The yarn has long colour repeats making for interesting fair isle work. The cardigans are done with two colours-one for the background and one for the leaves. I haven't knit fairisle in a long time but this looks very exciting.

I have ordered the Kauni yarn for the shop and we should have it in a couple of weeks. I wanted to add pictures of the colours but Blogger isn't being agreeable right now so here is a list.
EQ
EP
EF
EK
EL

If you are on Ravelry, just go to yarns and look up Kauni. You will see some phenomenal garments made with this yarn. Some people took old Alice Starmore patterns and knit with the Kauni. Because the yarn is changing colours, you don't need all the different balls like Starmore calls for. Take a look at crazyfiberlady's blog and you will see what I am talking about.

I haven't accomplished any knitting since my last post. Some days work can really get in the way!! :)

Family Day

In Ontario we have a new holiday in February called Family Day. This will be held on Monday, February 18. I didn't think much about the holiday, just assumed that all retail stores would be open. I was told in class last night and by my Canpar driver today that most retail stores are closed so I have decided to close that day as well.

I have been unpacking more boxes this afternoon. A huge box of Mountain Colors Bearfoot just arrived. We should have every colour in stock right now.

I am working on my Feather and Fan shawl this afternoon-maybe it wil be done by the end of the weekend!!

Wrap

Here is the wrap that I talked about yesterday from Jane Thornley. I think this might become an obsession-we will see when it is done. Putting the colours together might be more fun than knitting it. I have so many combinations put together in my head.

I am using

• Colinette Mohair
• Colinetter Giotto
• Trendsetter Dune
• Trendsetter Tonalita
• Trendsetter Checkmate
• Berroco Suede
• Rowan Kid Silk Haze

This is a great way to use up some of the balls you have in your stash!!

Pictures

Some days it is really hard to come up with a title for a post.

What is with the weather? Snow storm on Friday. Beautiful, warm and sunny yesterday. Freezing rain today and snow tonight.

We had a guild meeting last night. Mandi and Jocelyn taught crochet edgings. Many of the ladies were afraid of crochet but came away with a much better understanding.

I haven't had much time to knit but here is the progress on my baby sweater.

I have been unpacking more boxes. This is Baby Boom from Fiesta yarns. Two skeins will knit a pair of socks. They hand dye yarns in New Mexico and the colours are fabulous.

A box from Handmaiden arrived today as well. It was filled with kits for the Storm Water Shawl. The yarn is Sea Silk (70% Silk, 30% Seacell) and the colours are amazing. Each kit has 800m of yarn that can be used for this shawl or any other shawl you want to knit.

While playing on Ravelry I found this amazing wrap from Jane Thornley. Of course I had to purchase the pattern. Jane loves 'free form' knitting meaning the pattern is not written as a standard pattern. For many of us it is a bit of a challenge because we are used to the pattern telling us to do A, then B, then C. The great thing about the shawl is that it really doesn't matter. Of course I had to start it. I am using browns and purples. I hope to bring to work tomorrow and get a picture.