YUMMY

Mr. UPS dropped in today with two boxes of YUMMY from Frabjous Fibers.

We have new colours of Mary Ann. From the left, clockwise

307 Literature Love
308 Curious Tale
312 Chalice of Poetry
309 Imaginary Place
313 First Edition

Mary Ann fingering weight sock base has a delightfully soft hand with the smoothness and durability you want in a fabulous sock yarn.

There are 434m/475 yards on a 100gram skein. The new colours should be on the website early next week.

It is mini skein madness here.

Black Pearl
Quantity of Poetry

I didn't have time to take these out of the plastic for pictures but I think you can see how great the colours are.

There are many projects dancing in my head.

The ADVENTurer Wrap

The ADVENTurous Wrap from last year.

5 Million Kisses
Summer Glory

For the ADVENTurer Shawl Ambah calls for 25 mini skeins, each one 60 yards. Each mini skein in these kits are 128 yards so you would need 13 mini skeins or three kits. I should have the Cheshire Cat mini skein kits on the website next week.

Cathy used a mini skein kit to make Hitchhiker. A very simple knit that looks amazing.

Garter stitch. It‘s simple, its warm and squishy, stretchy and reversible and it makes any variegated, hand-dyed sockyarn really shine. So here‘s Hitchhiker: It is a narrow, slightly asymmetrically shaped triangular shawlette that can be wrapped around the neck several times. The ends are long enough to tie it with a knot. One of the short sides of the triangle features a saw-tooth border that evolves naturally during the knitting and gives the shawl its unusual shape. Because the knitting starts at one end, you can stop anytime, bind off and end up with a useful neckerchief, shawlette or shawl. A perfect project to relax in between more complicated ones, also very suitable for beginners and young knitters.

There is a new So Fond of Rainbows kit. It wasn't easy to photograph.

Twenty 1-oz Mini Skeins: combine them all for a large project, or spread them out over several smaller projects. The possibilities are truly endless! 

Cheshire Cat fingering (100% wool): 128 yards per 1 oz. skein, 2560 yards total 

I made it to the first fade on sleeve one. I'm going to knit a few rows and watch an inning or two of the baseball game. Then bed. It was a busy day in the store (I'm not complaining - the day goes by so much faster when it is busy) but I need a good night of sleep so I'm ready for work tomorrow. Fall has finally arrived and knitters are in need of yarn.

Hair Cut Day

We have a new sample in the store. Meet Humulus (pattern purchased on Ravelry). We used Woolstok from Blue Sky Fibers and Dream State from Spincycle.

Humulus is worked seamlessly from the top down. First some Short Rows are worked back and forth to create a higher back neck and then the round- yoke is worked top down to sleeve separation. Some last short-rows are worked to finish the yoke shaping right beforesleeve stitches are placed on hold, then the body is worked in rounds down to the hem. Sleeves are worked top down to the cuffs last.

Yesterday I showed Rita's Chevron Shenanigans. Of course I played with colours this morning.

Rockshelter Sock
172
145
129
78
237

Hedgehog. Skinny Singles above and Sock below. I used the same colours
Pollen
Fool's Gold
Harvest
Raku
Ferrum

Rockshelter
22
122
195
26
210

Primrose Adelaide
Moonstone
Hayfever
Dirty Pool Toys
Burn Out
Spiced Curry

©Stephen West

Here are two of Stephen's versions.

©Stephen West

It's hair cut day for Roko. He is much happier when his hair is really short.

He was very tired when he came home. It was a long time standing but now he is so happy. He was running around playing with toys. Now it's snuggle time.

Chevron Shenanigans

Rita came in this afternoon with her Chevron Shenanigans. This is a Stephen West pattern that you can purchase on Ravelry. Don't forget about his birthday discount this week.

Select a palette of fading colors to knit this top-down garter stitch shawl. Short rows with chevrons create the unique aymmetrical shape. The small size features four colors and the large size uses five colors fading from light to dark. I-cord edges decorate the clean lines of this classic Westknits shawl.

Rita used 4 colours of Uschitita. She kept telling me how easy the pattern was. It knit fast. She enjoyed it so much. Now I'm going to have to cast one on. I love this shawl and Rita did an amazing job on hers.

I tried to keep the shawl. It was a great match for my new shoes.

I pulled out some skeins that I have at home but think I'm going to wait a few weeks. We have GarnStories coming in November. Qing should be coming in November. This afternoon I ordered new colours from Life in the Long Grass and we will see those in December.

Here are a few of the colours that Caroline has added to the LITLG range.

I made it to the armholes on my Comfort Fade Cardi and started the first sleeve last night. I started it many times. The pattern says to do the cuffs on 3.75mm needles. I didn't have a 40cm circular at home so I used a 4mm - the needle for the sleeve. The stitches were cast on but there was no way that I could join them. Then I cast on with my long 3.75mm with the intention of doing magic loop. I mulled it over and decided to knit the cuffs flat (they are garter stitch) and then join in the round when I start the reverse stocking stitch. I will seam the cuffs at the end. After knitting the first two rows I realized that I had too many stitches. I started again and am on my way.

7:45 might be a bit early for bed so I'm going to knit and watch a few innings of the World Series. I'm pretty sure that I won't see 9.

Powder and Dust

Lace like little cat paw prints on dust and a lovely neutral, fading color palette make this shawl perfect for every knitter. Easy triangle shape and squishy garter stitch are relaxing to knit, but the lace and the fade add more interest to your shawl. 

Choose your favorite 3-color fade and cast on!

Veera Valimaki has a new pattern out called Powder and Dust. You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry. Diana is going to knit it for me using Singles from Autumn and Indigo. Beige, brown and grey. A bit boring but it will match a new pair of shoes that I have. And every shawl I own is bright so something a bit more subdued won't be a bad thing.

While we are on the subject of Autumn and Indigo, in about 4 weeks we are going to have more Comfort Fade Cardi kits. I have also ordered individual skeins of DK. The yarn is beautiful to knit with. There will be sweater lots of these colours.

Grey October

Classic DK: 4 ply 

100% superwash merino wool 

231 yds / 100g 

5.5 st / in on US 5 or 3.75mm

Covered Bridge

Aubrieta

Melted Copper

Patina

Weathered Barn

We have a basket in the store full of pretty colours. The yarn is perfect for hats, mitts and shawls. Sweaters too of course.

Campside (a free pattern) would look amazing in this yarn.

Mr. Canpar brought a box today and we have a brand new colour of Fino from Manos del Uruguay.

The Fino Circle Scarf is a free pattern that takes two skeins.

I love my Building Blocks Shawl.

A customer just brought this to my attention.

Stephen West turns 30 and all his patterns are on sale this week.

Enjoy my 30th Birthday Sale this week on Ravelry. 

Enter coupon code "Westknits30" in your Ravelry shopping cart to receive 30% off all Westknits patterns until Friday, October 26!

See the collection on Ravelry

Wrist Ruler

©Stephen West

Between teaching Brioche at Camp and the Brioche projects that Alex has finished I'm itching to do a project using it. Stephen West brought out Suriously Holey in July. He just added new pictures that caught my eye.

©Stephen West

Choose two colors of yarn for this top-down brioche shawl. Massive increases shape the semi-circular fabric as they suddenly explode and create a big hole from a single stitch. Increases and decreases form the final wavy border. Use two fingering weight yarns or try Qing Fibre’s Baby Suri Apaca yarn as the contrast color for a Suriously Holey project.

©Stephen West

You will need approximately 600m each of two colours.

©Stephen West

These pictures of my Comfort Fade Cardi show the colours better than the inside shots I took last night. I'm pretty sure that I have my measurements worked out and can start on the sleeves.

Good news. Our Wrist Rulers should be on the way to us by the end of the week. We have lots of colours coming.

Wrist Ruler is a leather wristband with engraved inch and centimeter measurements. If you find yourself always needing to measure things when you’re on the go, this is the perfect product for you. 

Sizes are based on wrapping around your wrist twice. Give it extra length depending on how loosely you want to wear it. Please allow an extra 1/2 inch for the stud closure.

Now a bit of knitting during the football game. The weather is perfect for the Comfort Fade Cardi but I don't think I should wear the same one every day so I better get this one finished soon.

Third Colour

A day of watching football means that I'm fading in the third colour.

It also means that I'm almost to the point where I need to start working on math. My finished Comfort Fade Cardi is hanging in the store. I'll bring it home tomorrow so that I can figure out where I need to stop on the body and start on the sleeves. I also need to make sure that I get the sleeves to fade at the same place as on the body.

Blue Sky Fibers has discontinued Royal Petites so we are clearing the yarn. It is 25% off.

The Countess Mitts take two balls. We have patterns in the store or you can purchase the patterns on Ravelry.

100% Royal Alpaca
35 gram ball
91m/100 yards
2.75mm-3.25mm needles

Order online or stop by the store.

The pattern for the Riverton Royal Slouch is available on Ravelry. You will need 3 Royal Petites to make this.

The Lykke Interchangeable needles in Indigo are so pretty. We now have the 3.5" Interchangeable set in Indigo. These are great for sleeves, hats and necklines.

I would love to put in another hour or so of knitting but my hands are telling me that it is time to stop. I can hear my chiropractor saying the same thing so I'm going to put my knitting away and head to bed.