Ultimate Sock

There is a brand new sock yarn coming from Malabrigo next week. 

We are excited to introduce one of our most-requested bases of yarn: Ultimate Sock, which contains 25% Nylon! 

Ultimate Sock takes our sock yarn and elevates it a level by adding 25% Nylon to the superwash merino that everyone already knows and loves. It is perfect to knit your lovely socks and make sure they will be resistant and durable at the same time. 

Ultimate Sock is a 4-ply with 420 yards yarn and we are introducing it with 30 beautiful colors.

Great for: Socks and garments with a lot of friction.

 These are just a few of the colours that are coming. There will be 13 colours coming in all.

We had fun golfing today. I played well. My score didn’t reflect it but that’s okay. Sometimes you aren’t that good but the score at the end looks good. The weather was beautiful. It wasn’t so hot that you felt gross when you were done. 

I’m home with the dogs tomorrow because Beth is playing golf again. I will get the new Malabrigo sock online so you can preorder.

Best Guess

I was supposed to be working on Elah but I am enjoying the fair isle knitting of Jade and continued today. Give me yarn that changes colour and I am happy.

Do you follow Andrea Mowry on Instagram?

Photo © Andrea Mowry

Her new sweater pattern will be coming out on Thursday. I don’t know the exact details but after some investigation I believe that the sweater is knit in sport weight yarn. There is a main colour and a contrast colour for the collar and cuffs. Tosh sport or Patagonia would be a great choice. There is a small amount of a mohair/silk blend and a colour of Dyed in the Wool. I will post better pictures and more information on Thursday. 

Tomorrow is going to be busy. I need to get to the store early to pack orders. We are golfing tomorrow afternoon. My best guess is that there won’t be a post tomorrow evening. 

Butterfly

Deidre has a new project - she is going to knit us another Butterfly Shawl. This was our store sample but we are no longer carrying the yarn that we used. The shawl is beautiful and looked great hanging in the store so it’s time for a new one.

For this shawl we are using Zauberball Crazy (1702 - 2 balls) with SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock (cauldron - 1 skein). It’s going to be bright.

You can purchase the pattern for Butterfly on Ravelry.

Take a look at the finished shawls on Ravelry that are knit with Crazy. Whatever colour of Crazy you pick will make a beautiful shawl.

This short row shawl looks lovely in either a long transition mutli-colorway or in placed color OR with bits and pieces from your STASH. 

Instructions are expressed in a new and unique method which I developed and that most American knitters are familiar with. The instructions let you know when you are on the right side or wrong side and gives extensive stitch counts. For some, it takes away a lot of the confusion sometimes found in other expressions of short rows. 

There is a lot of counting and this is very important. It is not a great project to knit while only partially focused in the short row sections. But there is also a lot of plain, garter knitting employed. For every short row section, there are rows in between that are more simple to execute.

Photo © MarinJa knits

My plan was to put together combinations and get pictures. I couldn’t get outside for pictures but here are a few that I was able to get inside.

Crazy 2514 

Above Alegria Natural (which isn’t quite as white as the picture)

Below Tough Love Sock London Fog

Crazy 1699

Above Alegria Natural

Below Tough Love Sock London Fog

Crazy 2528

Above Malabrigo Sock 412 Teal Feather

Below Tough Love Sock Spearmint

You can also use black or charcoal with any colour of Crazy for a real contrast. 

Dad and Lucy just left and it’s time for a few rows of knitting. I need to get back to Elah but that won’t happen until tomorrow. I had a crazy day in the store (thank you to everyone who stopped in) so it will be an early evening.

Let the yarn do the work

Mr. Canada Post brought a huge restock of Zauberball - Crazy, Starke 6 and Edition 3.

These 3 colours of Edition 3 (2301, 2442 and 2471) are going to be knit into Andrea Mowry’s Shift Cowl. I’ve wanted to have the cowl knit up in this yarn for a while but we haven’t been able to get stock. That changed today.

I’ve started putting colour combinations together and getting pictures.

Photo © Andrea Mowry

You can purchase the pattern for The Shift on Andrea’s website. The cowl is fun to knit. I have knit it three times and would definitely make it again.

This shawl is Brian Smith’s new pattern called Mossler that is knit with 4 balls of Rowan Felted Tweed Colour. This is an easy to knit shawl that lets the yarn do the work. 

You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry.

SoleMates

It’s an easy blog post on the day when Stephen West releases a new pattern. He has many, many pictures and you know that I love pictures.

Photos © Stephen West

This semi-circular shawl features seven colors of fingering weight yarn striped together. Textured stitches and eyelet stitch patterns decorate the large shawl shape. Each section is simple and addicting, so you are always looking forward to the next color and stitch pattern. The instructions include video tutorial links to learn how to work the I-cord Tab Cast On, the Elongated Criss Cross stitches, and I-cord Bind Off. Choose seven colors with a high-contrast color relationship for a bold and graphic striped shawl. You can also select seven shades that have a softer low-contrast effect for a subtle textured shawl. The border is decorated with chevron eyelets, resulting in a large, light, and flowy Westknits shawl. 

The pattern is available for purchase on Stephen’s website. 

We don’t have these colours of LITLG in stock but I am very certain we can find colours that are very close in Madelinetosh Merino Light or in Hedgehog Skinny Singles.

Yardage 
1900 yds/ 1737m total 
Color A - 300yds / 274m 
Color B - 240yds / 219m 
Color C - 400yds / 366m 
Color D - 400yds / 366m 
Color E - 180yds / 165m 
Color F - 200yds / 183m 
Color G - 180yds / 165m 

The Shawl Smorgasbord is here and it is a feast for the eyes! This shawl is like a platter of all your favorite stitches and techniques that come together to create this stunning masterpiece. I'm so in love with this design because it incorporates lots of eyelet elements and there are endless possibilities for dynamic color palettes. This semi-circular shawl features seven colors of fingering weight yarn striped together and you can choose high contrast colors for a bold, graphic shawl or softer, low contrast shades for a more subtle textured shawl. I can't wait to see all of the beautiful color combinations you come up with to knit your own Shawl Smorgasbord!

Take a look at some of the finished shawls on Ravelry.

Tina from Freia Fibers shared this picture on Instagram today.

It's waaaaay to hot for socks right now but I couldn't resist sharing this picture with you of some of our samples in our (Fall release) SoleMate sock sets! 

You're not seeing double! These little guys are tracked all through production from start to finish to ensure each pair stays with it's mate - giving you the pair of perfectly identical SoleMates! These are dyed on a Shaniko Merino Superwash base that just gets softer with each wash - and they are already soft to begin with. You will ooh and ahh when you have these on your feet. 

At the H+H trade show I strong-armed shop owners into trying on the socks and everyone was awed at how dreamy they felt on their feet. We will have over 80 colors to pick from.. Which color will you be starting with?!?

I finished the recommended number of rows on my Elah cardigan last night during The Amazing Race Canada. I wasn’t up to putting the stitches back on a needle and knitting the back so I pulled out my Jade Scarf.

This is the finished scarf. I’m at the halfway point. I was hoping that the scarf would be ready for Camp. That isn’t going to happen. It might come out in the fashion show on needles 😀

More Boxes

It’s been a day of unpacking.

We have three brand new colours of Le Lambswool. 

Grey Brown

Red Brown

Dark Rose Grey

There was also a large box from Madelinetosh and a restock of Cocoknits accessories.

My Daylilies are doing well. Every year I complain about the deer eating my flowers. This year we haven’t had any deer in the garden. Now I’m worried about them. Dad claims that he had a word with them and asked them to eat from someone else’s garden.

Are you following Soak on Instagram???

We didn’t watch The Amazing Race Canada last night so Beth is not so gently asking me to hurry with my post. Eight more rows until I start the back of Elah.

Shawl Smorgasbord

Do you following Stephen West on Instagram? He has a new shawl coming later this week.

📷 © Stephen West

The shawl is knit in fingering weight yarn. The pattern for Shawl Smorgasbord is coming out on Thursday.

I was in charge of the dogs today. We decided to have a lay down this afternoon. They didn’t leave me much room to get into bed. 

After our lay down I pulled out my knitting. 

The right front is at the correct length and the left front needs 12 more rows. The colour in this picture is very close to the colour of the yarn. I think it’s the best picture I’ve taken so far. You can see that blocking will be necessary when the cardigan is finished. The lace sections will lie much flatter and the ribbing will even out. I’m going to knit while we watch the start of the All Star Game.

Camp

Today I have been working on Camp. Rooms are assigned and we still have some great rooms available.

This is Swallows Nest. There are two units in the cottage that share a porch. Each unit has 2 bedrooms. One bedroom has a queen bed and the other bedroom has a queen bed with a pullout sofa. The cottage overlooks the lake.

Here is a tour of the cottage.

This is the Chipmunk Cottage if you want to come by yourself.

This is a small stand alone cottage. The bedroom has a queen size bed. There is a full bathroom and a living room with wood burning fireplace.

Balsam has two units available. One room has a king size bed, bathroom, fireplace and deck overlooking the lake.

The other unit in Balsam has 2 queen beds, bathroom, fireplace and deck overlooking the lake.

If you’ve already registered for Camp watch your inbox. There will be a newsletter coming this week.

I was at the store early to pack boxes and now I’m waiting for Mr. Canada Post to pick up the boxes. I’m also waiting on UPS to bring boxes from Madelinetosh. 

It’s after dinner and I’m watching the Home Run Derby while I’m writing.

Mr. Canada Post arrived and I waited another 45 minutes but UPS still wasn’t there. I left to run errands and wouldn’t you know it - UPS showed up 15 minutes after I left. We’ll see the yarn on Wednesday.

What’s in the box from Madelinetosh? I looked at some of the colours that we used to carry and ordered them in tosh merino light. 

Esoteric

Kelp

Denim

Fallen Cloud

Robin’s Egg

There will be a few new colours in Tosh Twist Light including

Texas Tulips

You Do You

Glass Bottom Boat

There was a bit of knitting time between errands and making dinner. Elah is growing. Lynn is constantly raving about how well the pattern is written. I agree. 

I need to get going. I want to have the cardigan finished to wear to Camp. That means I’m saying goodnight and moving to the knitting chair.