Almost done

This was written on Friday and then I forgot about it until I just opened up Blogger.

The basement is moving along. The drywall is done!! I picked out the paint colour this week. Not knowing what to pick I went to Benjamin Moore and asked for help. The first colour the lady suggested was Spiced Rum. This is the colour of the main room in our house. I might have snorted and then explained that we would like something different. We are going with a dark, earthy green. Yesterday morning Beth and I picked the colour for the felt of her pool table. We decided on a dark wine. We could have gotten a green close to the paint chip but when the colour is on the wall it could be totally different. Dad and Beth are spending today putting down the sub flooring. Painting starts on Tuesday and then the flooring.
I did not want carpet so we are having laminate. The colour is called Pecan.

It is now Tuesday morning. The painters were supposed to be at our house at 8am. Friends own the painting company and Mike called at 6:30 if he could come. Beth didn't answer her phone so Mike showed up at 7. It has been a long day already. My truck is having its check up this morning so I am without wheels. What a terrible feeling. I have no idea how I am getting back to the dealership tonight to get it-maybe my dad will take pity on me.

Did finished the sub floor yesterday. The painters will get the primer done and the first coat on today. The floor can then be put down, the pot lights put in and then the final coat. We might be done next week. Thanks goodness-8am is killing me. Now just picking out a bed, bedding and towels for the bathroom.

I finally picked up my knitting needles again last night and did a couple of rows. I really have to sit down and get going on my lace cardi. I just did the cast off for the armholes on the back. I only have a week to get it done so it is safe to say that it won't happen (but you never know). I am going to sign off now and get knitting.

It's Pink

The new Knitter's Satchel from Jordana Paige is pink. On Ravelry this morning, Jordana wrote that the new colour (and out of stock colours) would be available in a couple of weeks. I have already ordered the pink so I am guessing we should have them in about 3 weeks.
The lining is very pretty. Very girlie. :)

Cat Bordhi sock kits plus other great yarns

I spent this morning unpacking more yarn. It is always a happy day when the mail man and UPS lady arrive.

From Lorna's Laces
A new kit called Flying Carpet Socks by Cat Bordhi. The pictured socks are Lorna's Laces Gold Hill and Mountain Colors Wilderness. The 5 other available colours are

LL Mixed Berries & MC Winter Sky
LL Sassy Stripe & MC Sun River
LL Tahoe & MC Mountain Tango
LL Rainbow & MC Meadow
LL Iris Garden & MC Wildflower

We also received some skeins of Helen's Lace. This is lace weight yarn, 50% wool, 50% silk with 1250 yards on a skein. The colours in this box were Lakeview and Tahoe-more colours have been ordered. It is always a surprise opening a box from Lorna's Laces. We never know what colours are going to be there-kind of like Christmas.

In Shepherd Socks we received
Child's Play
Purple Iris
Mt Creek
Iris Garden
Uptown
Jay Pond

The box from Dream in Color was full of surprises as well-both good and bad. I thought the box was going to be full of Smooshy (the sock yarn) but there were only 2 colours-Flamingo Pie and Butter Peeps. The good news is that we received a lot of Baby-the lace weight yarn.
Spring Tickle
Deep Sea Flower
Petal Shower
Chinatown Apple
Dusky Aurora
Cocoa Kiss
Cloud Jungle
Flamingo Pie
Go Go Grassy
Lunar Zazzle
Pansy Golightly
Into the Mystic

I am going to turn the heat on and knit for a bit. It is cold here today. I can't wait to get home and turn the fireplace on.

Knitting Bags

A shipment of bags from Offhand Designs arrived yesterday afternoon. I was going to post about it then but 3 posts in one day would have been way too much.

This is one of the new fabrics for spring-Cosmo Bloom. It looks fabulous in the Zhivago Weekender as well as the Zelda Grand below.
I am currently carrying around a Zelda Grand bag. LOVE IT. I have the back and one front of my lace cardi in it along with extra balls of yarn. It doesn't look big but you can fit lots in it.
This is Hip to be Square. The colour was available in the fall but we didn't bring it in. I don't know why because the colours are great-browns and rusts. Because it is last seasons fabric, it might not be available for too much longer.

I just sent out a store newsletter and in it I talked about Jordana Paige's Knitters Satchel. There will be a new colour coming out on Friday. You can enter to win a free bag - hurry -it has to be done by Thursday night. Edited to add Sorry-I didn't read the fine print-you must be a US resident to win. I put in an entry and it took my address so I assumed Canadians could enter as well.

Pictures

Wow, two posts in one day. I should have saved this for tomorrow but the pictures were taken and I had time right now.

This is a picture my mom painted for my bedroom. I obviously don't get my art talents from my mom!! I almost failed art in grade 7. In grade 8 we had to keep a sketch book. Every week we had something new to draw-a glass, apple, light switch or something else around the house. My mom did mine for me. The art teacher wasn't very bright because she should have been able to tell that someone else was doing my work-I almost fail one year and get an A the next?
These are hanging in my bathroom. There are 4 pictures in total but I couldn't get them all in one picture.

I found these pictures at a craft show last Christmas. The artist, Karen, is from Burlington but doesn't have a gallery where you can shop. She did have a booth at the spring One of a Kind Show so I am assuming she will be there again this fall.

Here are some important dates if you are a Rowan fan. The fall Rowan magazine will be released on July 15. We should have it in the store soon after that. The next Rowan Studio magazine (#10) will be available in June along with Kim Hargreaves new magazine, Nectar.

My first dinner party

My mom turned 65 on Friday so Beth and I decided to throw her a dinner party on Sunday. Many of the guests were in awe that we actually cooked the food and didn't have it catered. The menu included
-lasagna (made Thursday night)
-ham
-pot roast
-scalloped potatoes
-roasted potatoes
-cauliflower
-carrots
-Caesar salad (brought by someone else)
-Oreo cheesecake (made Saturday night)
-Ice cream cake (brought by someone else)
-Cheesecake (brought by someone else)

Beth and I had many discussions about how much food to make. We thought that 15 people were going to show. NOT. We had 20. Luckily we did have enough food but there wasn't a lot left over.

It was an all week event for this. We were at the grocery store at least 4 times. Then we had to go to Pier 1 and buy some more furniture. We have great couches in the loft but there wasn't anywhere to put down a drink so we had to buy some end tables. Unfortunately the Ancaster store only had one so Beth had to go to Hamilton for the other. We also had many pictures to be hung so dad did that on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. There was also the trip out to buy more cutlery. We had enough for 8 but now have enough for 16. Napkins. Napkin rings. More serving dishes. All the little things you don't need for day to day life but all of a sudden need when feeding the masses. We are now set for the next event!!!

I forgot to mention picking out the flooring for the basement. Cathy worked on Thursday finishing the kitchen clean up (which looks amazing). I ran out to get us lunch and stopped at home to see how the drywall was going. Dad was there hanging doors and asked me to run and get coffee. When I returned to the house the flooring guy (my dad's friend Jim) showed up so my dad asked me to take Jim to Home Depot and see the flooring we picked out. I am just going to say that I spent over an hour and a half at Home Depot-the story is way too long and just makes me mad. We now have the flooring in our garage and it was on sale for half price so everyone is happy. It was just one of those things that I didn't need to deal with on that day.

Yarn is on its way
-more Shepherd sock yarn from Lorna's Laces. I have notification that it left the US so it will be here any day
-more Dream in Color smooshy. I just talked with UPS and it should be here tomorrow

I did get some knitting done on my lace cardi over the week. Both fronts are done and the back is almost to the armhole shaping. I'm going to stop writing now so that I can get back to the knitting.

More cleaning

Our basement is moving along. The drywall is being taped today. I can't wait to clean up all the dust. :)

I have been working on my Lace Cardi. Both fronts are done and I am 20 rows up the back. I haven't taken any more pictures because it looks just like the first piece.

It is my mom's birthday this weekend so Beth and I are hosting a dinner party on Sunday. It will be the first time someone has eaten at the dining room table. We plan to get them all drunk first and then they won't notice if the food isn't good.

I've gotta run. Cathy and I are cleaning out the kitchen today and tomorrow. It has become one of those rooms where you open the door and throw things in and quickly close the door before things fall on you. It will become my office and shipping room. Right now I haul everything home to ship-not fun.

I guess my mom hasn't been to my blog lately or she would have been bugging me to do more posts.

Cathy worked all day yesterday and made amazing progress in the store. It is looking fantastic!! We packed up many, many garbage bags of yarn for the tent sale. My garage is getting full-Beth isn't happy. Included in the bags are
-discontinued colours of Noro Silk Garden and Kureyon
-more Colinette

The Dream in Color Classy now resides in the front window. The colours show up great in the natural light-not great in the picture-sorry.
This is the Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Cotton and Dyed Cotton along with Berroco's Bonsai. The skeins look great hanging.
The wall of chunky yarns has been tied. We have cleared out some of the discontinued yarns (think tent sale).
Cascade 220 and Cascade 220 Heathers. All colours are now on the shelf and there is a large colour range. I just finished putting these on the website as well and hopefully Korey will get the shade cards up soon.
I found this stand at Home Sense and the shawl pins look great on it.
The entrance way has been totally changed. We had baskets of Colinette yarns. These are all in my garage now and are waiting for the tent sale. All Colinette will be $10 at the sale.

We put the shawl yarns in the entrance.
Dawn, Fino and Prism Lace make up a great colour assortment.
Jane knit the Oakleaf Shawl in Dream in Color Baby. More colours should be here in about 4 weeks.

There are a couple of reasons for all the pictures.
1. I like blog posts with pictures.
2. It shows why I haven't been posting-too busy rearranging.
3. It will make my mom happy-it is Mother's Day this weekend.

A shipment of Shepherd Socks arrived yesterday. Beth picked it up at the post office for me and people were grabbing skeins out of my hands as I was unpacking it.

Silky Merino from Malabrigio is in the store. Three colours arrived today with patterns coming for fall. The suggested tension is 18 stitches to 4" making it great for garments and scarves. The sheen on the yarn is amazing.

On Monday I was in Toronto visiting some of my suppliers. They hold open houses for us to see the new yarns for the upcoming season. There are a couple of great yarns coming from Noro. Silk Garden Chunky-I don't think I need to say anything else except when is it going to arrive because I want it!! Silk Garden sock yarn. New colours in Kureyon and Silk Garden that will be in the store at the end of this month. Kureyon sock has new colours that will be here in August (fingers crossed). There will be at least four new books using Noro this fall.

It's almost home time and then I will be back later tonight for class. I am so tired. They are doing the drywall in the basement now. 8am and I don't agree with eachother. They will be doing the taping starting on Monday-luckily they don't start until 9am.

Have a good weekend and Happy Mother's Day.

Cathy strikes again

I have used this title before but it is very appropriate.

Cathy came in to help me today. We have done some major moving around. I started during the week and we almost finished today. Sarah is working tomorrow and I can hear the phone ringing all day because she won't be able to find anything.

At the Frolic I was beside Lori from Oceanwind Knits. She delivered my order of fingering sock yarn (for socks or shawls) that is 100% merino in very muted, subtle tones. The yarn is beautiful and I just ordered some more. We also received her pattern for the Oyster Bay Shawl.

After work I am off to the Dundas Pottery sale. It runs this weekend.

Friday May 2 - 3 pm to 10 pm
Saturday May 3 - 10 am to 8 pm
Sunday May 4 - Noon to 4 pm

Dundas Community Centre
10 Market Street South, Dundas, Ontario

Have a good weekend and hopefully I will have some knitting to report next week.

Tent Sale

This is last years tent sale. Cathy is straightening yarn-what else is new? As you can see we put out lots of yarn for you to go through.

I just sent this to Korey so he can put it on the website so I thought I had better put it here as well.

Tent Sale
St John’s Parish Hall
37 Halson Street, Ancaster

Tuesday July 8 5-9pm
Wednesday July 9 12-8pm
Thursday July 10 9am-3pm

We are moving indoors this year so there are no concerns about the weather. It also gives us room to put out more yarn. We always ran out of parking at the store but we won't have that problem this year.

Get great deals on discontinued yarns, odd balls and yarns we are clearing out.

Colinette $10 a skein
Discontinued Rowan $5 for 50 grams and $10 for 100 grams
Sock yarn
Much, much, much more

Visa, Mastercard, debit and cash

Fall Rowan

I just finished ordering the fall Rowan. All I can say is fabulous. It is the 30th anniversary of Rowan and this could possibly be their best book yet. Marie Wallin's designs are incredible. There is lots of Wool Cotton, Kid Silk Aura, Kid Classic, 4ply Soft and Felted Tweed. There is a new yarn with Kaffe Fassett's name called Colourscape Chunky. Fabulous colours and a book just for it with amazing designs. I have been carrying Rowan since we opened and the last few years haven't excited me. This fall will be different.

There are new colours coming in Kaffe Fassett sock yarn. The colours do a different pattern that looks neat. We have also ordered a 6ply sock yarn (double knitting) in Kaffe Fassett colours. There is a book for this with sweaters, scarves, hats and socks.

I need to get back to work now. When I started unpacking boxes that came back from the Frolic yesterday I decided to start moving around the store. I wish someone would stop me when that pops into my head. The store is currently a mess (and about to get bigger) as I put up new shelving and rearrange.

Frolic

It has been a crazy week but things should start to slow down a bit now which means I can knit and blog again.

We started for Toronto at 2:30 on Friday afternoon. Luckily the traffic was light and we were at the Japanese Cultural Center before 4. Beth left about 6:30 and I stayed another hour setting up.

Saturday morning I met Jane at the store at 6am (which meant getting up at 5). We got to Toronto, finished the booth and were ready for the crowds at 9. The show was great as always. There were 62 vendors, unfortunately I didn't get a chance to walk around and see the show. I am sorry if you came by the booth and I didn't talk with you-we were busy all day. My truck is now full again and this afternoon will be spent unloading at the store (or maybe not since it is cold and raining.)

I spent yesterday watching tv-Nascar and hockey of course-and knitting on my Stella cardigan. One front is done and I am 15 rows up on the other front.

Last night was the finale of Big Brother. I really didn't want Ryan to win. He was still professing his love to Jen even after she tried to throw him under the bus at the beginning of the show.

Gotta run-today is tax day. I need to finish my tax return and GST return. YUCK!!

Henk and Karens adventure

I have been doing a bit of knitting over the last couple of days. I am almost done the first front of my Stella cardigan. The hockey playoffs have limited my sleep so I might as well knit. The pattern is very well written (as are all Fiber Trends patterns) with the neck shaping written out row by row so you don't run into problems with the lace. I am enjoying knitting with the bamboo-I see more of it in my future.

My parents have always loved children and would have had 10 if they could have. They are in Myrtle Beach right now and some of the men who work for my dad have brought their families down for a vacation. Mom and dad decided to take the kids out last night so the adults could do their thing. They had 7 kids aged 12-17. Unfortunately their van won't sit 9 people so my dad rented a limo to take them out-a big surprise for the kids. The first stop was Johnny Rockets for dinner and then a movie (the limo driver went along to both as well). There was still some time left after the movie so they went out for milk shakes. All the kids slept over last night and when I talked with my dad this morning he was getting ready to make pancakes. My parents did some really cool stuff with us and our friends but they never rented a limo to take us out!! Yes I am pouting right now.

I'm almost finished packing for the Frolic. As always there is way too much stuff but I don't want to run out of yarn. LOL!!

The Namaste Malibu and Laguna bags just arrived today. We will have all the colours at the show on Saturday and then back in the store next week.

Blogger is cooperating again

Here is my finished baby sweater. The yarn really shows the stitch definition. It was a simple sweater to knit-a new knitter could easily do this.


The weather is beautiful outside and I didn't have a summer sweater to wear to work today. This along with the fact that I just finished a project lead me to starting a new project today. This is a Fiber Trends pattern (FT463). I am using Stella from Naturally (100% bamboo) in white. This way I can wear it with black pants and any of my new summer sandals. Two strands are held together and it is knit on 5mm needles-I already have 20 rows done on one of the fronts. The pattern is very well written (as are all Fiber Trends patterns). Gotta run-my new project is calling.

Finally

The baby sweater in Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton is finished. It's sewn together and all ends are in. Now Blogger isn't cooperating-I can't upload any pictures right now. Hopefully tomorrow.

Big Brother last night was great. Natalie didn't see it coming.

Gotta run. It's almost closing time. I'm running home to meet with the electrician. We're bribing him with dinner and then back to the store for class.

Mom has been busy

We have kept my mom busy over the last couple of days making a table cloth for the dining room table. We did not want to serve dinner on the table without a table cloth and pad underneath in case someone (okay that would be me) spills. We had to add a runner down the middle to cover a seam. I still need to iron it but they are leaving for Myrtle Beach in the morning and mom wanted to see it on the table. She has some Amy Butler fabric packed to do a quilted runner while they are away.

A new shipment of Offhand Design bags arrived today. This is always a dangerous day for me because I want them all. The first three are the Zhivago Weekenders. This bag is big enough to carry around your whole knitting project or to use as a travel bag if going away for the weekend. The next three are called Zelda Grand.






Progress is being made on the basement. The electrician and plumber are coming tomorrow.

Sorry-no knitting to report. I am just getting ready to pick up the stitches around the neck of my baby sweater. Maybe tomorrow. The next week will be busy starting to pack for the Frolic.

It's been a long week

I have been up since 7am and all my chores are done so I am eating breakfast and writing.

My parents decided last week that they are going to sell their house here and buy a condo. This isn't happening for a few years but the wheels are in motion. Trust me, when my dad's wheels are started in motion things happen quickly!! Beth's pool table is in their basement so it needs to come to our house but our basement isn't finished so now that is being done. Construction workers don't start their day at 9 like I do so the last few days have been hell for me. Thursday morning dad was here at 8 so that we could lay out the basement. Friday morning at 8 the owner of the drywall company was here to look at what needed to be done. At 7:30 this morning the steel was delivered and the work has started.

This week in Brantford the Allen Cup is being played. This hockey tournament has been running for 100 years and according to my dad is the oldest amateur sporting event around. Yesterday was renamed Hockey Day. We went and watched the 1pm game, went out for dinner and then watched the 7pm game. Sitting in an arena all day is harder than working!! Mom was quite happy though because we kept dad out of her hair for the day.

Joan Kass taught an introduction to lace class in the store on Saturday. Everyone came away with a greater knowledge of lace knitting but were very tired. Joan kept them working from 10-4. I'm surprised she let them have lunch.

I am almost done the baby sweater in Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton. I should be able to finish the sleeve this morning and get the neck band done. This is getting the point of being was past the time it should take to finish a sweater. Also, I need it for the Frolic and that is coming up soon.

If you call the store today and I don't answer, try again, I might be napping. :)

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?