40 years

I love Rowan Felted Tweed. These designs are from the new book New Vintage DK. Somehow it was missed in our last order but we should be receiving it by the end of the month. Can't wait? You can purchase the patterns on Ravelry.

New Vintage DK is a collection of 14 designs inspired by classic cables, geometric pattern and lace work. Designed by Lisa Richardson, Martin Storey, Sarah Hatton, Vibe Ulrik, Georgia Farrell and Quail Studio

Basilica (above) is knit with 6 colours.

Knit this women's cardigan from New Vintage, a design by Martin Storey using our beautiful tweed effect yarn Felted Tweed (wool, alpaca and viscose.) Knitted in a stunning stripe sequence and with a small, shawl collar, this pattern is suitable for the more experienced knitter.

Corinthian (below) is knit with 3 colours.

Knit this accessory shawl from New Vintage, a design by Martin Storey using our beautiful tweed effect yarn (wool, alpaca and viscose.) Knitted in a stunning stripe sequence using three shades of yarn, this pattern is suitable for the beginner knitter.

Repton takes 9-12 balls. What a great cardigan to throw on.

Knit this women's cardigan from New Vintage, a design by Lisa Richardson using our beautiful tweed effect yarn (wool, alpaca and viscose.) With an all over textured pattern, v neck and pockets, this pattern is suitable for the intermediate knitter.

Felted Tweed is a beautiful blend of 50% merino wool, 25% alpaca and 25% viscose.  The yarn has a beautiful tweed effect, perfect for fairisles, striping and other colour work and is the obvious choice for winter projects. The rustic colour palette makes this yarn a firm favourite, with shades ranging from cool, watery tones, to warming cherry red and fiery ginger. 

*Please note, this is a lightly pre-felted yarn. Please follow care instructions, as the yarn may felt further if washed incorrectly.

It hasn't arrived yet but it's coming. The book will sell for $37.95.

40 years and 40 magazine covers - which is your favorite?! 

This beautiful hard cover book takes a look back at some of our most-loved designs from Rowan. 

From the introduction by Marie Wallin: "I hope you will enjoy this book, and as it takes you on a journey through these four glorious decades of spectacular knitwear design, I hope you will fall in love with Rowan all over again."

Here is a preview of some of the patterns that will be in the book. There will be 20 patterns that have been knit in new yarns and refreshed colour palettes.

This will be appearing in the next Rowan newsletter. We're very excited to part of Rowan's 40th Celebration.

Part of the celebration is Rowan Anniversary Mugs. These are on order but I don't know when they will be arriving. Reserve yours now. They will sell for $16.50.

Now it's time for a bit of knitting. I have a few projects to get finished for The Knitters' Fair and Knitting Camp.

Alex is getting ready for the cold

Alex has been busy knitting. Two mittens finished (almost) out of one ball of Uneek Sock. She is going to make mittens that match out of the other ball.

She is making Harlow (pattern purchased on Ravelry) by Andrea Mowry. Alex likes to knit brioche. The main yarn in the top picture is tosh merino light. The main yarn in the bottom picture is Dyed in the Wool from Spincycle Yarns. One hat with two different looks.

When I cast on this hat, my intention was to design my ideal, go-to hat pattern. A perfect jumping off point for beginner briochers to try on their newly acquired skills - this hat is great for any gender or age, and the color possibilities are infinite! We all need a dependable hat pattern right?? This is the pattern I know I can depend on for stash busting, wardrobe enhancing, or a quick gift for someone I love! 

I totally forgot to show pictures of the new Hedgehog Kidsilk Lace that arrived in our last order.

Deja Vu

Bubble

Raku

Salty Tales

Baseline is knit using Kidsilk Lace and Hedgehog Sock.

Triangular garter stitch shawl with an i-cord border. The striping is rather striking, especially using high contrast yarns. The shawl is quite sizeable and in the shlanket territory, but you will be adding width in sections and you can simply choose to stop adding sections at any time for a smaller shawl. Kidsilk Lace adds a wonderful fuzzy texture and a delicate translucent effect.

Birds of a Feather is another very popular pattern on Ravelry for Kidsilk Lace.

Starting at a single point and growing and shifting from ethereal mohair to silky smooth single ply into a piece that begs to be wrapped up in.

Lucy is getting lazier and lazier. We joke that in a year she can become a yarn store dog. She'll just lay around - maybe lifting her head to greet you and then back to sleep.

One Kit Two Shawls

Diana used a Fading Point Kit from Autumn and Indigo to make Sandscape (the triangle shawl on the clothes line). She had a lot of yarn left over so we made Free Your Fade.

This shawl was created to be your favorite shawl pattern! Really relaxing garter stitch with engaging eyelet rows and endless color possibilities. It would be gorgeous knit up in one color, but you can just as easily use 20! I’ve extended the color melt sections for an even more cohesive fade, with easy instructions to add as many fade sections as you would like! The shawl is light weight and perfect year round when knit up in fingering weight yarn, but don’t let that stop you from knitting it up in any yarn weight you prefer to the size of your choosing!

Free Your Fade is huge! I love it. Diana used all five colours and kept going until almost out of each one. She started with the darkest colour and worked to the lightest.

Both shawls are easy to knit.

I have 74 rows to go on Time Trades. The Amazing Race is taping but it isn't the best show for knitting. I need to pay attention to what the teams are doing. I hope to get a few more rows done tonight.

Thank you to everyone who has commented so far on yesterday's post. It looks like we should make the kits for Slow Curves with an extra skein.

I need your help

One of my planters gave me colour inspiration for Slow Curves.

Fuse Moorland
Long Dog Single Through the Woods
LITLG Single Crush
Primrose Adelaide Batty

HELP
I am making up some kits for Slow Curves and need your help. The kit has 4 colours. According to Joji's yardage, I will need 2 skeins of the third colour for most of the kits. When I look on Ravelry at finished shawls, it looks like we can get away with 1 skein of the third colour.

Do I put in the extra skein? If you don't use it then you could be upset that you spent an extra $40 on the kit.

I don't put in the skein and you run out. Then you are super upset.

Which is better??? Please leave a comment at the bottom of the post.

This appears at the bottom of every post. Click on comments and you're set to write away. Comments are moderated - they won't show up right away.

I've spent today writing a newsletter and I think it's almost ready to go. I was writing about Camp and remembered something that Beth wrote for me a few years ago.

Knitting Camp is nothing like the camp you attended as a kid. At Knitting Camp you get to choose your day’s activities. Go to class, sleep in, take a hike - totally up to you. Super comfy accommodations with someone else making your bed. And the food is incredible and seemingly endless. The one way it is like camp though, is that you will make great new friends who you will look forward to seeing year after year. Come as a group, a couple (non-knitting partners love camp too!) or on your own. Don’t worry you’ll all be included in the fun.

Last night we had a birthday party for my Uncle Phil. He is my mom's brother and is mentally handicapped. He lives in a Salvation Army home and they are amazing! The staff loves their work and definitely aren't paid enough for what they do. He has a small apartment with two room mates. Johnny and Bobby. They have lived together for years. We had a small party first and then all the residents came for another party. Phil was so excited. He got a Beatles Tshirt for his birthday and was wearing it proudly - he loves the Beatles. Being there made me thankful for many things. It also puts life in perspective. Sometimes (okay, most of the time) I worry about the smallest things.

Dad and I had dinner with Aunt Rene and Uncle Bob tonight. It's great getting together with family. Where was Beth? It was Club Championship weekend at her golf course. She played well Saturday and Sunday. Today wasn't as good but it was good enough. She won.

Now it's time to knit for an hour before bed. My needles have been calling to me all day.

Patterns on Sale

Time Trades has grown a bit more. 115 rows to go. Taking pictures inside shows the colours a bit off from what they really are. It isn't peach like the picture - the colours are more beige.

There are some great deals on patterns right now.

From Ambah O'Brien

Each day in August I feature a pattern for 24 hours with an automatic 50% off (no code needed).

Follow Ambah on Facebook to find out each day's pattern. She posts around 8pm EST. I totally missed this until late last night.

Today's Featured pattern is the ADVENTurous Wrap 

Designed with a Yarn Advent Calendar in mind, to make the most of daily mini skein gifts that appear. There are so many possibilities - add in colours randomly, arrange your minis in a gradient fade, or use a main colour and alternate with mini skeins. This is also a perfect way to use up all those leftover yarns hiding in your stash. Simple garter stitch keeps this a mindless knit; some fun shaping and the regular colour changes will keep you wanting to knit on. What adventure will you take with your Adventurous Wrap? Enjoy 50% off Today's Featured pattern, just add to your cart to see the new price. 

Purchase the pattern on Ravelry 

I don't know what patterns are being offered but check daily - you won't be disappointed knitting one of her patterns. They are very well written.

Then I saw this from Romi.

I was walking by the Long Dog shelves this afternoon and these colours jumped out at me.

Five colours for Fading Point and I took one out for Slow Curves.

I need more hours in a day or more hands.

I'm Addicted

Finally a picture of Time Trades.

I made it to the LITLG Singles. In this section there are 136 rows. I'm on row 47. Then there is another 68 rows. The pattern is addictive. You do the lace work on one row and then three 'rest' rows. Just knit and purl.

I was going through my pictures looking for something and found one that I didn't share. Alex is knitting Rose (pattern purchased on Ravelry) by Andrea Mowry. She is using Uschitita. The pattern calls for sport weight yarn and she is using fingering - she did a tension swatch (Alex always does a swatch) and she's dead on tension.

This open cardigan is a true adventure in knitting! Combining unique sideways construction, cables, fading and exposed seams to create a flattering oversized dolman style sweater that looks great on all types of figures! Knit in one color or four, to suit your style! This sweater has a beautiful curved underarm that creates a lot of drape for an oversized look, with long, slim cuffs that give you different styling options. You can either wear them long, to accentuate the slender portion of your arm, or cuff them for a shorter sleeve!

And then there was another one.

We now have the knit kit in turquoise and purple.

We've added a new class to Knitting Camp this year. Dying Sock Blanks. 

In a nutshell, a sock blank is a knitted rectangle designed to be unraveled and then knit into socks, scarves, shawls, mittens, or anything you would knit with fingering weight yarn.

They look a little bit like an unfinished scarf with live, loose stitches at each end.  Sock blanks are machine knitted with undyed yarns and then dyed. Gradients, stripes and random splashes of colour are all popular designs for sock blanks.  

Take a look at this blog post from Felicia at SweetGeorgia Yarns for ideas of what you can make with sock blanks.

We still have room in all the workshops but don't wait too long. There is a limit on the number of people we can have in the dye workshops.

See the workshops and pricing on our website...

Dad and Lucy came for dinner and we watched the start of the TiCat game. Wow. It's hard to tell if Hamilton is really good or Montreal is that bad. They've left and now I have my knitting chair back. I'm going to knit and watch Monday's episode of Love it or List it. Then bed. 

Restocking

Arranmore Light is back in stock.

Inspired by the breathtaking scenery of Ireland’s Northern Headlands, Arranmore Light yarn is spun in a mill that traces its roots to the homespun tweed industry of 19th century County Donegal. A finer weight than the popular Arranmore, Arranmore Light blends cashmere and silk with a fine merino wool to create an authentic tweed yarn of the finest quality. With a colour palette reminiscent of the wild Irish coastlands, Arranmore Light was designed for makers appreciating the best of luxury and tradition.

Yarn weight: DK   Hank weight: 100 g 

Fibre: 80% Merino wool, 10% cashmere, 10% silk 

Length: 300m / 328 yds per 100 g hank 

Tension / Gauge: 22–24 sts over 10 cm / 4 in 

Needle size: 3.75–4.00 mm / 5–6 US

We used four skeins to make the Library Vest.

Colour 3010 - we used this in our sample

Uneek Fingering finally arrived. We've been waiting for more of this beautiful yarn.

Each skein is a work of art. A truly unique self-striping hand dyed merino collection of vibrant colours.

The Butterfly shawl takes two skeins of Uneek Fingering and one skein of a solid or semi solid fingering weight - we used Hedgehog Sock in Graphite.

More Uneek Sock kits arrived as well.

Self-Striping sock kit for matching socks. Kit contains 2 pre-wound cakes.

Alex took a kit home last night (#55) and has started a pair of mittens. She is using the Addi Flexi Flips and loves them.

Comfort Fade Cardi

Happy Birthday Andrea Mowry. In honour of her birthday she is having a sale on all her patterns.

YAY!!! It’s time for my annual Birthday Sale!!! Please join me in celebrating with the coupon code BIRTHDAY35 thru 8/8/18 at midnight EST! You will save 25% off of all of my self published patterns! Shop HERE!! 

To make this birthday even more special - all of my patterns from my book, A Sense of Place, are now available for individual purchase!! (They also happen to be perfect for gift knitting with most of them sized for the entire family!) You can find them all in my DRK shop or on Ravelry!!

Find Your Fade

One of the many boxes that came in on Tuesday had a new yarn from Sirdar. Alpine is 100% Polyester and the animals are knit on 6.5mm needles.

Dad, Beth and Lynn were in charge of the garden and flower pots while I was away. They did a great job. I came home to lots of new blooms.

I was in a rush to get to work this morning and forgot my knitting. There are already a lot of pictures so I'll get pictures of my shawl tomorrow.

Home Again

The trip home was quick and easy. We left Myrtle Beach 15 minutes early and arrived in Niagara Falls about 20 minutes early. From landing to my store was around an hour and a half.

There was so much to see. Rowan. Primrose. Sirdar. Hedgehog. Urth. Blue Sky Fibers. I didn't spent a lot of time looking at any one thing. The store was busy and I had parcels to pack and mail. Tomorrow morning I'm going to take some time and explore.

A customer asked me if I was making up kits for Joji's Slow Curves. I pulled out four skeins of Primrose Adelaide. These are all brand new colours.
Maple Leaf
Istanbul
Smoking Gun
Glacier

I have some of the new colours on the website. I was adding while eating dinner. The rest will be added tomorrow.

Lynn left a little early to stop at the post office and run some personal errands. BIG PROBLEM!!! I didn't have store keys. I couldn't lock up. Beth had just left home so she went back and brought them to me. While I was waiting I put together another combination.

I didn't have a lot of time to sit and relax in Myrtle. Tonight I sat and knit. I'll take pictures at work tomorrow. We watched The Amazing Race, Big Brother and Making It. I highly recommend Making It. The projects that the contestants completed were amazing. Woodworking. Felt artists. Paper artists. The show is on CTV in Canada and NBC in the US.

Now it's bed time. I didn't have more than 6 hours of sleep a night while I was away. I'm aiming for 7 tonight.