Worsted

Andrea Mowry’s cardigan, Andrea, was originally printed in the book Worsted. It is now available on Ravelry.

Andrea was designed to complete any outfit with a touch of polish with its geometrical texture and easy-to-wear open styling. The cardigan begins with the pocket liners which double beautifully as your swatch! The body of the cardigan is then knit from the hem up to the underarms, where it is split into front and back and then finished at the shoulders with a 3-Needle Bind-Off. Sleeve stitches are picked up from the arm openings and knit down to the cuffs.

Photos © Laine Magazine

We have 3 new colours of Malabrigo Rios. The box that was stuck in Buffalo arrived this afternoon. This is 150 Azul Profundo

683 Cain

894 Cielo Y Tierra

We received another large box from Cocoknits that has to be unpacked in the morning. More of the Self-Absorbent Towels.

Here is a sneak peak as to what is going to go on sale tomorrow. 3pm on the website and 11am Friday morning in the store.

I found a bag of odd skeins of Dyed in the Wool. They are in the sale.

I stopped at Staples on my way home and picked up price signs. I will be busy tomorrow afternoon pricing all the sale yarn. 

It’s time for Survivor and Trinagin. Then bed. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

New Colours

I started my post yesterday and then didn’t have much to say. We were supposed to received shipments yesterday. The boxes coming by UPS are stuck in Buffalo. The boxes coming by FedEx were out for delivery yesterday. Dad shuttled me back and forth to get my car and we missed the FedEx driver by about 5 minutes. He’ll be back today. While I’m waiting for him and a delivery from Canpar I washed my floors. The store smells great. Once the boxes get here I can take pictures of the new Noro Ito colours. 

The Ito arrived. 3 large boxes. All the colours are online but I didn’t have time to play with them. Any of these would look great in Trinigan. I think the big square with the bottom middle colour would make a great Nightshift. 

I also spent time getting ready for our Black Friday sale. The sale starts online Thursday at 3pm EST. The sale in the store will start at 11am on Friday. There are some great markdowns (10%-60%). The store is suffocating me a bit right now because it is too full. I need to clear out some stock. 

The sale items will go live at 3pm on Thursday. Here is a link to where you will be able to find them. 

The website has been updated for the Cascade shipment we received - Cascade 220, Cascade 220 Heathers and Cascade 220 Superwash Merino (5 new colours were in the box).

Now it’s time to move to my knitting chair. When I got home I thought it would be a good idea to wash the floors here. It was necessary but not a good idea. My body is sore and says please relax and knit. 😀

I finished the second ball of Trine last night while we were watching Yellowstone. Beth wouldn’t pause for me to wind another ball so I started another elf.

Here is the post that I started last night.

My car went into dad’s garage to hibernate for the winter. He (the car) spent the last week at the dealership having some repairs and he’s ready for when nice weather arrives.

We need a village

My elf is mostly finished. I made his scarf too long so I need to take out a few rows. Then all the ends need to be sewn in.

He is 15” tall. Beth thought that his hat and scarf should match so that’s how I finished him. I will weigh the leftovers tomorrow. I think that I could make another elf reversing the colours.

You need to put some weight in the base so that the elf doesn’t fall over. Churchmouse suggests dried beans. We ended up with white navy beans. I read online that they don’t go bad so a small bag of the beans is in the bottom. You knit the body and face and then start stuffing. The bag of beans was in the bottom of my friend but the bag wasn’t sealed. I didn’t know this until beans started falling out. I had to pull out all the stuffing and then collect all the beans. The second attempt was much better.

I am back to working on Trinigan for the evening. Tomorrow I am going to cast on another elf in purple. I think we need a little village of them. The elf was easy to make and goes fast in bulky yarn. 

New Kits

This is the Arabella Cowl knit out of Rowan Alpaca Soft. 

Rowan has put a kit together for the cowl.

Create this colourful cowl designed by Lisa Richardson in our much-loved Alpaca Classic yarn. Simple stitches are used throughout including slip-stitch colour work to create blocks of colour. 

The kit includes 6 balls of Alpaca Classic, the pattern, a pair of Rowan Birchwood knitting needles and a Soak wash care sachet to ensure the best of care for your treasured hand knit. The pattern is fully translated in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian.

If you don’t want to use Rowan’s colours you can purchase the pattern on Ravelry and create your own.

This is the Anne Wrap from Rowan. You need one Shade Pack and 5mm needles. The pattern is free when you purchase the Shade Pack - please add in the notes on your order that you are making the Anne Wrap.

My Elf is growing. I started on double pointed needles and after the base I switched to circular. The pattern doesn’t say this but it is much easier going around and around on circular needles.

Later in the day. How tall is it? There is an extra large cup from Tim Hortons inside to hold it up.

The picture above was taken at 5:20 and the picture below at 7:20.

As I’m finishing my post at 8:00 the snow has stopped. 

I’m at the shoulder shaping on my elf and then short rows for the face. I’m setting him aside for the evening and working on my Trinigan. We had a great day in the store. It was really busy which I like but I’ll be ready for bed soon.

Jolly Great Elves

These are Churchmouse Yarns Jolly Great Elves knit in bulky weight yarn. Rowan Big Wool or Malabrigo Rasta would make amazing elves. 

Our Jolly Wee Elves have gained a Jolly Great friend! We’ve created a free adaptation to our original pattern so you can knit this big buddy. Just the right size for a hug, this scaled-up version of our little hand-knit pals is so fun to make—and quite quick with big yarns and big needles!

You can purchase the pattern for the Jolly Wee Elf on Churchmouse’s website and then print off the free addendum for the Jolly Great Elf.

Here are the yardages needed for the Great Elf.

Approx. 142 yds/130m total chunky-weight yarn: 87 yds/80m in MC, 10 yds/9m in FC, 15 yds/14m in HC and 30 yds/28m in SC. 

You will need a full ball of Big Wool or Rasta for the body. One ball of the face colour will make 7 or 8 elves. 

If you have some worsted weight yarn lying around the house you can try triple stranding it. I think it will give you the tension that you need.

I decided that I needed to make an elf in Rasta. The middle colour is my body. The purple could be my hat - that is still be be decided. The teal is for the scarf. The Rowan Big Wool will be the face.

While I was on the Churchmouse website I saw the picture for these slippers. My Aunt used to knit these slippers non stop. Churchmouse rewrote the pattern (it’s a free download on their website) and now you can knit them too. They are knit in double strand worsted weight yarn.

A basket near the front door heaped with these Family Slippers makes for the warmest of welcomes. Our version of these nostalgic slippers evolved from several versions of the pattern found in every auntie’s knitting bag. We finessed the toe a little but left the heel in its simplest form. Embellish your slippers with pom-poms, tassels or buttons—or try our split cuff for a preppy Oxford shirt look. It’s so easy!

Now to cast on my Elf.  

End of Day Knitting

Trinigan is growing. I am almost finished my first skein of Dream State. 

So far the cardigan is a very enjoyable knit. You don’t need to think. There is only one colour in a row. It is perfect end of the day knitting.

I had on my Spark cardigan today. I wasn’t thinking when I started Trinigan. I am going to have two Andrea Mowry cardigans with the same main colour. 🤷🏼‍♀️. 

I finally contacted my sign company to have our sign at the entrance updated. It was way far down the To Do List and today I moved it to the top.

We don’t have any shipments coming tomorrow but we will have lots of boxes on Monday. 3 boxes of Noro and 2 boxes of Malabrigo Rios. When the Noro arrives Deidre is going to knit Trinigan for the store. We are going to use Ito and Cascade 220 Heathers.

I reread my post and I should amend it to read that we could have lots of boxes on Monday. I have a feeling that they will be delayed by the snow hitting the Buffalo area. Something in me says it will be Wednesday before we see them.

Now it’s time for end of day knitting.

Mittens

We had a bit of snow overnight and I had to clear my car off this morning. Mittens might have been a good idea. This Tin Can Knits pattern can be knit in almost any thickness of yarn. The pattern is written for fingering, DK, worsted and chunky

Sometimes winter catches you by surprise and you need a pair of mittens, quick! These are a perfect quick knit or a blank canvas for mitten fun!

 You can download the pattern for free on the Tin Can Knits website.

If you want your simple mittens to be very warm then add in a strand of Kidsilk. The Kidsilk won’t drastically change your tension but it will make the mittens very warm.

I highly recommend Tin Can Knits patterns. They are well written and have links to tutorials

Dad was out of the office and Beth tried to get Lucy up to take her out. That is Lucy’s collar in the middle of the floor. You can try pulling her but if she doesn’t want to get up she won’t. You end up with a collar and leash but no dog.

Beth tried to get her collar back on. No, she wasn’t lifting her head.

Dad decided that Lucy needed to start wearing bandanas again. She is so big that regular bandanas are too small. Beth found bigger ones online and they work great. These don’t look like they are choking her.

The first snow of the year is always so pretty. The trees look great and the snow is so white. Now that we’ve had it I’m fine with 10C every day until April.