Elvis Paisley

It’s a fresh update to a familiar scent. With its kiss of tart citrus and crushed eucalyptus, it’s sure to be the new favourite!

Mr. Fedex stopped by today with a box from Soak. Yuzu is here. Handmaid and Soak in 3oz bottles. I opened a bottle of Soak and really like the scent.

Elvis Paisley is in the house. New Soakboxes in a great colour for summer.

Mr. Canada Post dropped by as well with two boxes from madelinetosh-lots of merino light. Four more to come on Tuesday.

And the last visitor of the day was Mr. Canpar with some new colours of Ayatori from Noro.

60% wool
40% silk
142m on a 50gram ball
3.75mm - 4mm needle

I think I found the cardigan that I need to knit. Thea Colman (aka Baby Cocktails) has a new pattern out on Ravelry called Baileys Irish Cream. It's knit in double knitting weight yarns so there are many options. Zara (100% merino from Italy), tosh dk, tosh merino dk, Debbie Bliss Bella.... No yarn came home with me. Maybe tomorrow to start on Monday. A holiday means that you get to start a new project. You can quote me on that. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day. I hope your loved one remembered and brought you a thoughtful gift.

Before I forget, the store will be closed this Monday, February 18 for Family Day.

Mr. Canpar brought in two boxes today with lots of pretty sock yarn.

SockItToMe Bold From Estelle Designs

75% Superwash Wool
25% Nylon

400m on a 100gram ball

Made in Italy

The colours are bold!

$15 per ball

One ball will make a pair of socks up to a size 12.

The second box had six new colours of Noro Silk Garden Sock

Cathy was in the store today wearing another great scarf she just knit.

Pattern: Aldred from Katherine Matthews - printed patterns in the store or purchase on Ravelry
Yarn: Classic Elite Liberty Prints

The colours of her scarf match her new glasses. I'm rubbing off on her. :)

I'm going to talk about Survivor (after a short commercial) so if you haven't watched last night's episode then please stop reading.

I'm having some fun right now with my sinuses. They're infected. I'm taking antibiotics and they are draining. Which means lots of blowing my nose. My nose is sore so Beth bought me some very special Kleenex.

Kleenex Cool Touch^TM Tissue are made with a unique blend of ingredients, including cooling moisturizers and aloe. When Kleenex Cool Touch^TM Tissue comes in contact with your skin, body heat activates the formula to release cooling comfort to soothe a sore nose.

I don't know if I will ever be able to use a regular Kleenex again. These are amazing.

I did remember all the favourites when Survivor started. Now I really need to ask who picked them. Instead of favourites maybe they should be called veterans. Just my opinion. :)

It was good to see Cochrane. He will make it interesting. Just one question. If you have skin that fair why are you walking around in hot sand without socks or shoes? Of course your feet are going to burn.

Two minutes into the show Francesca declared that she would eat a rock if she was the first one voted off again. Beth and I turned to each other and started to laugh. Talk about the kiss of death. You knew she was going home. She didn't learn anything from being there the first time.

Right now Malcolm is my guy!!

West Garden

Mr. Canpar brought in some new pattern books from Classic Elite. Here are some of the designs from 9220 West Garden which are all knit in Sanibel.

Sanibel is Classic Elite's fashion yarn: understated, feminine and chic, with a touch of glitz that makes a statement for both daytime and evening wear . The drape is alluring, the hand soft, and the palette sophisticated. Sanibel is perfect for anyone who wants a little excitement in their stash.

There are actually three different yarns that make up Sanibel. Two have matte finishes and one is shiny. All three yarns are flat-they almost look like they were knit a machine or woven.

When knit there is a beautiful drape to the fabric.

42% Cotton
58% Viscose

20 stitches = 4" on 4.5mm needles

Survivor starts tonight. There are some happy people in my house. I'm not sure who picked the favourites. I like that Malcolm is coming back but do we really need Phillip and Brandon? I think that we've had enough of the Hantz family. Just my opinion. :) Maybe I will change my mind later on this evening.

Then Sunday night The Amazing Race starts. Have you seen the commercials? I'm not going to say anything in case you haven't but it looks like an interesting season premier.

Beth is standing beside me asking telling me to hurry so that I can get the stitches for her Inspira Cowl cast on. She took a beginner knitting class many, many years ago so she knows how to do it but I'm much faster so it's easier to whine a bit and have someone else do it for you. She did cook me dinner so I guess I owe her :)

It's the little things

It was a night of weird dreams last night. Can't I dream about some pretty yarn? No, I dreamt that I was on a cooking show, think Master Chef or Top Chef. I can cook if I need to. I just choose not to. In high school I took home ec and learned how to make a cheese soufflé but I don't really think that puts me on the Top Chef stage. They'd give me a fish to work with and I would have to walk off the show. I'm requesting yarn tonight.

Mr. UPS stopped in this morning with a box from Rowan. A sample garment in All Seasons Chunky. Now I know that I really need to knit with the yarn.

Knit this womens ribbed cropped cardigan from the All Seasons Chunky Collection, a design by Marie Wallin using the gorgeous yarn All Seasons Chunky (cotton and acrylic). Knitted in one piece and a rib stitch throughout, this knitting pattern is for the beginner knitter.

There is a long story behind this that I'm not going into but I bought a cool app today (iFrame) that lets me put multiple pictures into one frame. Yes, most of you probably have one of these programs already but it's the little things that make me happy. So I bought the program and wanted to use it. Showing off yarn is perfect. This is Ultra Alpaca from Berroco. Five colours that we don't have in the store but I just ordered. They should be here next week.

My Inspira Cowl so far. I'm just about at the half way point. Maybe by the weekend.

Haymarket

Mr. UPS brought in a huge box from Lorna's Laces today. We received four colours of Haymarket and more will be coming a few weeks.

 Christmas at Downton

Mineshaft

 Zombie BBQ

Cummerbund

And some new colours in Solemate.

Harrison

 Daley

 Ogden

Medill

Kim finished her shawl. I really thought about taking it from her. It is beautiful!!

Pattern: Guernsey Wrap by Jared Flood. We are currently out of the pattern in the store but you can buy it on Ravelry.

Yarn: 11 balls of Rowan Felted Tweed (Kim held two strands together)

Needles: 5mm

Maybe an episode of Grey's or CSI or Criminal Minds. The choices are endless and I have yarn. :)

Lonely Tree

I'm making progress on the shawl. The pattern is well written. It is only in chart form but it is an easy chart to read. All you need to know is knit, purl, yarn over, slip 1 knit 1 pass slipped stitch over and slip 1 knit 2 together pass slipped stitch over.

Here is a better picture showing the colours. There is almost a shine to the yarn.

I was adding the Spud and Chloe yarns to the new website which meant going to their website. In the free pattern section I found these really cute baby mittens. No thumbs so you can whip them up. Spud and Chloe Sweater (the yarn used) has 29 colours to choose from.

Download the pattern...

Taiyo Lace is a new yarn from Noro for spring. Here are two free patterns.

All you need is one or two balls depending on size.

Download the pattern...

Download the Tunic pattern...

All you need is one ball.

This is as far as I got on my post Saturday morning. The store was busy all afternoon and I didn't get back to it. When I closed the store I went home, changed and was off to the Carpenteros Valentines Dinner. This raises money for Honduras. The funds don't pay for the people who go on the mission trips-they pay their own way there. All money raised goes directly to Honduras for wells, schools, meeting halls and whatever the board thinks is a good cause. The dinner is held in a school gym. The meal is prepared and served by volunteers and we had 180 people for dinner. Beth and I look after the coat check and then are servers for dinner. Do that for an evening and you have a new appreciation for the people who serve you in a restaurant.

We got home about 11pm after helping to clean up and I fell into bed. This morning I woke up achy with a headache, fever, sore throat and a cough. Most of the day was spent in bed or on the couch. You know I wasn't feeling well because I had a ticket to a box at the Raptors game tonight and couldn't go. I'm feeling better now. Going to have a tea and maybe watch a bit of TV before getting to bed and being ready for work tomorrow.

Mr. UPS will have three boxes for us. Two from Rowan and one from Lorna's Laces. Maybe Mr. Canada Post or Mr. Canpar will have some goodies as well.

Snow Day

It's been snowing all day in Ancaster. No work for me. What to do? Start knitting with Haymarket from Lorna's Laces. I brought this home from TNNA.

Pattern: The Lonely Tree Shawl - free on Ravelry
Colour: Daley
Needles: 5.5mm - the pattern says 5mm but I wanted to make the shawl a bit bigger

This picture doesn't show my knitting very well but it shows a picture of the finished shawl.

Mr. UPS has boxes on his truck for us so I guess he will be bringing them on Monday. There is a large box from Lorna's Laces with a few colours of Haymarket. The yarn is really nice to knit with. No splitting. I haven't knit very much with it but so far I can say that I highly recommend it.

Mr. Roko (left) loves the snow. He keeps going to the back door to go out and play. It's fun to dig in the snow to find your toys.

Mr. Melo could take it or leave it. His paws were getting wet.

We got Beth's truck shovelled out. It was a bit of an adventure. She backed her truck in which sounded smart at the time. Not really. Her drivers door was beside the grass and her tires were on the edge of the driveway. We couldn't shovel to get to the drivers door so I walked through snow that was well above my knees. Tomorrow night is the annual Valentines Dinner to raise money for Honduras. They need to start setting up tonight so Dad and Beth have made their way out. Thank goodness for 4 wheel drive. If I can't get my car out in the morning I know that I can get to work in Beth's truck.

The poor kids who have to clean the driveways in our complex will have their work cut out for them tonight.

There are a couple of magazines that arrived Thursday afternoon that I forgot to mention.

The Luxury Silk DK was in the box as well. It looks really nice-very shiny. 100% silk.

It's later in the evening and I have fed the kids who are shovelling. I baked them chocolate chip cookies and took them water. Yes, our driveway will be good and clean. In case you are living in a nice warm climate and are missing the snow here is a picture of what we ended up with.

And this is nothing compared to what the people of the north east are going to get. Wishing you the best-hope that they are wrong about how much snow is heading your way.

Inspira Cowl

I got back to my knitting last night while watching The Taste and Top Chef. After the first episode of The Taste (which I didn't get all the way through) I decided I wasn't going to watch anymore. Beth taped it while I was away so we decided to try again and watch the second episode. Much better.

The Inspira Cowl is growing.
Pattern: free on Ravelry
Yarn: Classic Elite Liberty Wool-2 balls each of 7890 and 7821
Needles: 5mm 60cm
I cast on 150 stitches to start

Here are the colours as they would knit on their own

7890
Ultra Violet Autumn

7821
Caribbean Tide Pool

Beth is almost done her Linen Stitch Scarf. She got a lot of knitting done while I was away and is quite proud of herself. No mistakes. She joined two balls of yarn on her own. There came a spot in the scarf where she didn't like how the colours were playing out so she cut out a section and rejoined the yarn.

Late next week we will be receiving two new colours of Liberty Wool. Beth has declared that when they arrive she is going to cast off her scarf I'm going to cast off her scarf. She will be using one or both of the new colours to start her own Inspira Cowl. Who would have thought that she would knit so much??

An email just came through from madelinetosh. A shipment is leaving Texas tomorrow.

vintage
-well water
-cathedral

merino
-amber trinket
-mourning dove
-grenadine

dk
-tart

merino light
-nutmeg
-william morris
-vanilla bean
-envy
-cloak
-celadon
-glazed pecan
-smokey orchid
-mica
-terrarium
-duchess
-tern
-victorian gothic
-denim
-thunderstorm
-stovepipe
-clematis
-fragrant
-flashdance
-french grey
-opaline
-tart
-cousteau

sock
-maple leaf
-dahlia
-copper penny
-charcoal
-lowland
-flashdance
-nebula
-alizarin
-cousteau
-worn denim
-onyx
-tart

It's much later in the evening and I'm taking a break from working on the website. Not trying to sound like a broken record but the launch date could be next week. The snow hasn't started in Ancaster yet. I want it to snow lots, so much that I can't get to work, or don't snow at all so that there is no problem getting to work. Nothing in between please. In case I'm stuck at home an assortment of addi needles fell into my bag so that I can play with my Haymarket. The oven is on and I'm going to bake cookies. The kids who shovel our driveway like them. And it gets our driveway done first. And they do a really good job at my house.

Stay safe to anyone getting snow tonight.

Wheelwright

Diana came in this afternoon with Wheelwright. The pattern is from the Winter 2012 Twist Collective and you can buy the pattern on Ravelry.

It is beautiful. Diana said the pattern was easy to follow and she enjoyed making it.

It was 5 (and very light out) when I went outside to get pictures. I had to rush and could have done a better job putting it on my friend. I will try for better pictures tomorrow - as long as it isn't snowing out.

Wheelwright is started from the upper edge and knitted flat, evenly increasing the stitch count until the outer edge is reached. The lace pattern is worked on RS only, the WS rows are purled.

The shawl consists of ten identical lace wedges. The sections are divided by a single knit stitch. The first 2 and last 2 stitches of every row are knit for a garter stitch edge. The outer edge is worked by crocheting chain stitches and binding off the stitches at the same time.

We used one skein of tosh prairie (lace weight) in the colour tart.

A box is on the way from Lorna's Laces with the new colours of Shepherd Sock, Solemate and Helen's Lace. There are a few colours of Haymarket in the box too.
-Zombie BBQ
-Cummerbund
-Mineshaft
-Christmas at Downton

I haven't started knitting with my Haymarket but maybe tomorrow. If we get the snow we are supposed to get over the next few days the store might be slow.

Downton Shepherd Sock is coming as well.

I forgot to show you something that I saw at the show from Freia Fibers.

New colours for the Sonoma Lace Shawl.

The new colours will also be coming in fingering weight.

I miss Vegas but it was great being back in the store today. Cathy and Kim did a great job while I was gone. Maybe too good. I can go away again. :)

Now it's time to get back to work. The website!!