Thursday, December 27, 2007

Gifting Results!


I had two projects to finish for Christmas - I meant to knit for more people but time got away from me. I still have to finish a shawl for my grandmother but she was called to say that her knitting wasn't finished. She did receive gifts from me - just no knitting!




At the request of my sister-in-law Joey - there are no faces to these pictures - cute as she is


-she didn't seem to want her face plastered all over the internet!



The top picture is Joey and my mother in law, Joanna both modelling their sweaters. I was so thrilled that they both fit and that they were both appreciated. Joey's is made from Dream in Color Cocoa Kiss - the pattern is Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Joanna's is a Blue Sky Alpaca Worsted Handdye Simple Tunic - I think the pattern was a Knitting Pure and Simple one - Joanna loves the color red and the Montreal Canadians so this color was the perfect choice for her. She also coaches boys hockey so it will definitely keep her warm at the rink!






Some pictures of Emma and Quinn - and Quinn, Emma and Liam all in the Christmas pj's courtesy of me...






And here's my boy, Jeremy and my father in law, Art who is recovering beautifully from his bypass surgery!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and spent lots and lots of time with people you love!

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

It's A Good Knitting Day!

Have you seen it? The Winter Knitty is live! This is the pattern that Amy Singer predicts to be one of the "it" patterns - as in everyone is knitting it!




Jeanie is a work of art! She takes 3 skeins of Smooshy from Dream in Color! I got the ad for this so I've been able to stock up on this yarn!



Indigo Moon Vancouver Series arrived yesterday! Thanks so much Trish for sending the sample shawl. This is the Landscape Shawl from Fiber Trends. Patterns are on the way to the shop. It's so cuddly - just perfect for snuggling up in the crazy winter weather we've been having!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Perhaps I should reconsider....

knitting sweaters...or maybe just Mr. Greenjeans because it appears I may have a mental block when it comes to this sweater. I finished the body of the sweater for a second time (and it fits this time)but I noticed that the cabled part really pulled in - oh well, nothing a good block won't fix, right? So off I go on the sleeve but the cables were really bugging me - finally it hit me from looking at the picture - alternating with the cables in supposed to be a section of k4 - how could I have missed that? Twice no less! Urrrr - so out if came and now the bottom is being knit correctly for the third time. Don't you just love knitting? I guess this really proves that I love Dream in Color yarn because I think if it was anything else I might have pitched it to the bottom of my bag. Good thing I am so desperate for THIS sweater in CLOUD JUNGLE!




Speaking of Dream in Color - here is Lucy in the Sky(I do have this pattern in stock) out of Classy Cocoa Kiss. Yum - a Christmas gift for my sister in law and so far no mistakes - I've checked and double checked.

I do have a new love and a finished item - the Wavy Scarf from Handmaiden (download for free from Handmaiden blog)out of Swiss Mountain Sea Cotton! Oh my goodness - there are some yarns that just grab you - and this is one - pure pleasure to knit with .

One skein gives you a scarf in excess of 70 inches. And finished! There's not a single person who doesn't want this scarf
when they see it!







Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Customer Creations and other stuff

Things are getting very festive around here - here's one of two tiny Christmas trees for the window - see the tiny balls of yarn and knitting that Lisa made. She's so talented! ;)





















Here's the front of the store! Simple but pretty I think!



Santa Claus came to Bradford on Saturday night. There is nothing like a small town parade. Laura, Liam and Emma sat on the curb by the shop and watched all the action. Baby Quinn had a nap inside the shop where it was warm with Granny! Both Liam and Emma are wearing the Dream In Color Fatty hats!





Here's two finished pieces by customers. Left is the Mr Greenjeans cardigan made by Linda in Dream In Color Classy Lipstick Lava - it's gorgeous. Both Linda and her daughter have become big fans of this yarn - the long cardigan designed by Laura Chau(pictured above) is next on the list in Black Parade. And....I'm doing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by Laura Chau in Classy Cocoa Kiss. If I were only allowed one kind of yarn to knit with(for the rest of my life) - it would be Dream in Color. I love this yarn! I have all of Laura Chau's patterns in stock - the girl is a genius!

This is the baby surprise jacket made by Sherry! It's made from Fatty (Dream in Color)in November Muse - 4 skeins made a sweater big enough for 3-4 years old!



Friday, November 09, 2007

Don't faint ...

at the fact I've actually blogged twice in the recent past.




Here's a couple of things I've been meaning to show you.....










The monster at the topbecame the beauty on the bottom with 4 skeins of Riverstone from Louet! A great gift for $30 - I'm going to try it in Bonnie which is a varigated wool/silk from Louet that felts and has a fantastic price of $7.50.

Occasionally, I do get all festive and dress up! Yeah right? But I did wear this hat all the way home - so there! Marion and Judee!







Emma was quite impressed with me when I got out of the car at home. Laura thought I looked like an idiot. Ah - the differences in daughters - one 8 year old who thinks I'm fabulous and one 23 year old who thinks I'm ok now that she has children of her own but still doesn't care for my antics.




These are the first two practise socks from Cat Bordhi's new book. Top is Sky and bottom is Coriolis. These were made while I was at home sick for........
Quinn - my new grand daughter!






Congratulations Laura, Andrew and big brother, Liam!





Wednesday, November 07, 2007

I've Been A Little Busy.....

two weeks ago at our Knit Night my husband called to say his dad was having some kind of pain in his back radiating to the front and that he'd be going to the doctor's the next day. I had a big fit and said he should go to the hospital right away because it could be his heart. Unfortunately, I am way to familiar with heart stuff (given my mom dying from bypass surgery and my dad having a heart attack 5 years ago)and after many phone calls back and forth, they finally took him to the hospital. Turns out he had had severe chest pain and sweating the day before at work and had had a major heart attack. They performed the angioplasty on Friday night and he had a major blockage which required emergency surgery the next morning. His bypass surgery took 11 hours (an extremely long and complicated one)and at one point, they came to tell us it wasn't going well. However, he did pull through and has been recovering at home for about a week now.
The Monday after my father-in-laws surgery I decided to have my mother in law and sister in law for dinner because none of us had eaten anything but junk all weekend. Just as we were sitting down to dinner, my daughter called to say that our family doctor had sent Liam to our local hospital and the local hospital was sending him to Sick Children's Hospital for a suspected testicular tortion - a twist in his "you know what". So off my dad and I went to Sick Kids to wait for the ambulance and within 1 hour, Liam was having emergency surgery. He's perfectly fine but his old granny thought she might have a breakdown with all these hospital visits.
So now I'm thinking everything is all settled - everyone is doing and I'm done with hospitals for a while. No such luck - on November 1st, Laura had her baby - a sweet little girl called Quinn. And granny (that would be me) kept Liam overnight and didn't get a wink of sleep. Now everyone is home and doing fine and I should get back to work - I really miss the little shop but can't say enough about Lisa taking care of everything perfectly. But no - I get a wicked cold and can't seem to do much of anything. Urrrrrr!

But I have been knitting (can't post any pictures because the camera is at the store) I knit a gorgeous Blue Sky Alpaca Eyelet Baby Blanket in Strawberry Hand dyed worsted for the new baby and then decided to tackle Cat Bordhi's new sock designs and have completed Sky which is the first learning sock and Coriolis which just about finished me off. New Pathways in Sock Knitting is spectacular and brilliant - kind of along the same lines as Elizabeth Zimmerman's baby surprise jacket being an engineering masterpiece. Just when you thought you knew all there was to know about sock knitting - out comes this book. I do have them in stock at the shop so if you're local you should come and have a look - if you aren't local they will be on the website later today (at the US price)

So there you have it - there's been reasons for no blogging......but I'm back now!

Thursday, October 18, 2007


Ok so I think my grandson is really cute! The other picture was a scan of an actual photo so it didn't show his gorgeous blus eyes. Here he is in the sweater, hat and mitts. Both the hat and mitts knit up super quick in Dream in Color Fatty. I even did a hat for Emma in just a couple of hours.

Have you seen the Riverstone yarn from Louet? Can you believe the price $7.50 for 165 yds? It felts beautifully - you can make this bag for $30 (pattern included) - I'm thinking everyone should get one for Christmas! Here's two versions one in Citrus Orange/Crabapple and one in Green Apple/Purple.















I've also started a shawl/wrap/scarf thingy out of the Malabrigo lace. Here it is knit with double strands in a drop stitch pattern. The colorway is Stonechat 173.


Mr. Greenjeans is back on the needles and I'm plugging away at it - I will never not swatch again! Yeah right!

Friday, October 05, 2007

Gauge You Say!

This picture makes me very happy. My gorgeous grandson Liam wearing his Baby Surprise Jace that his granny (yup, that's me -granny!)slaved over. See he's pointing to his hat - I made that for him on Friday - less than 1/2 skein of Dream in Color Fatty in November Muse - I'm working on the matching mitts now and still haven't used up the whole skein!

This was also making me incredibly happy! Mr. Greenjeans from Knitty in Dream in Color Cloud Jungle until.....

I tried it on and had to turn it into this. Something to do with gauge - sweater has a gauge of 18st/4ins and Connie was getting a gauge of 18sts/3 ins which lead to a sweater that did not fit. My husband suggested I give it to someone else but nope - this yarn is mine. I was suspicious of the size of this sweater the whole time I was knitting it but guess when I checked to see if it fit - despite the pattern telling you to try it on - when I was just about 2 rows for the cast off of the sweater body. Gotta love knitting!

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Never Ending Sweater and Some Other Stuff




This is the never ending sweater. It's a sweater for my grandson, Liam - the Baby Surprise Jacket in Blue Sky Alpaca Worsted Hand Dyes in Olive. Knitting exactly according to the pattern, I finished this on Saturday, took it home and tried it on him. The sleeves were too short - no problem, I picked up stitches at each cuff and added on 4 inches in garter stitch to each sleeve BUT I didn't have quite enough yarn so I had to open up a whole new ball - which lead to the hood. I've picked up and cast on that hood 2 times and finally now I've got it. Hopefully, fingers and toes crossed - it will be done today! It's so gorgeous - not cheap - but really, really gorgeous!














We had a great Knit Night - from left to right is Marion, Angela, Jeanette, me, Carol (our first Learn to Knit student), Vel and Clare! Thanks also to Dawn for coming up all the way from the city to see my shop! It was great to meet you!

Here's the Pick Up Sticks shopping bag! They are huge and roomy made from a great heavy duty canvas. In store or online they are $20 and once you have one, you can get a 10% discount for a whole year. No cards to hold on to - nothing for you to do expect bring your shopping bag for your discount. Of course, online customers can't bring their bag when they are shopping but they can still get the discount once they have a bag!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

I have to live a long time......

I have to live until at least 195 years old to knit with all the yarn I want to. Ok - so there might be down side to owning a yarn shop - it's not good for your stash and it's definitely not good for WIP.
Here's what I've started just since I've been in the shop:



Chevron Scarf with 2 skeins of Oceanwind Knits Premium Merino



Bulky Tunic with Blue Sky Alpacas Hand Dyed Worsted in Red













Baby Surprise Jacket with Blue Sky Alpacas Hand Dyed Worsted in a gorgeous olive color.














High Neck Cable Sweater with Blue Sky Alpacas Suri Merino in Pink


Socks from Araucania Ranco Multi





Not to mention the Clapotis out of Hacho from Mirasol!




And look what just arrived - 3 dozen roses from my husband for our Tenth Anniversary. Aren't I a lucky duck? I'm going to smell the roses - next time I'll blog about what I want to cast on but am trying to resist!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Canada's Fastest Knitter

We had a celebrity in our midst last night at our Knit Night - she didn't even tell us - I figured it out this morning when I read her blog. Meet Wannietta (I snagged her photo from her blog - had I known who she was I would have got out my camera and snapped away!) She is the two time and current winner of Canada's Search for the Fastest Knitter with a personal best of 245 stitches in 3 minutes. Her technique is amazing to see. Thanks so much for visiting Wannietta - it was our pleasure!

So on to some blog worthy things that happened this morning. Lisa and I stopped at McDonald's on the way into work (I know not a good breakfast choice)and I had a coupon for 2 can dine for $5.98 - I forgot I had it so the first total I got for the cashier was $8.53 after giving her the coupon she spent several minutes making a refund, inputting the coupon order and then pleasantly announced our new total was $9.00. Now how does that happen? Apparently sausage mcmuffins are not included in the two can dine coupon so she had to charge us for sausage and egg mcmuffins - I wanted to just pay and get out of there - by now there was a line up several cars deep behind us and I could see some agitated people glaring at us. Lisa didn't want any part of paying more for something that we should have gotten cheaper so then a manager had to come and re-do the whole thing - turns out our new cost was $7.19 so we did save but boy oh! boy - what a struggle!

On the way to the shop we were stopped at a stoplight and the van in front of us said on the rear window. "I wish my wife were as dirty as this car. " It was written in the dirt on the window and actually had been written twice because we could see where it had been erased and then someone re-wrote it. I wanted to follow the guy and ask him what he could be thinking with something like that on the window. Lisa and I figured he's a bitter divorced man who's wife got the best of him in a settlement - we say well deserved for the wife in question. Some people!!!!

My husband always says I shouldn't comment on things like the above because you never know who could be reading this blog - in this particular case I say I hope the guy does read it and maybe gets the hint. Jerk!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Good News!

Not much time to blog today because I have things to do:
sock club boxes have to go and I'm going to figure out how to do an Adult Tulip cardigan since I've now completed a solid one. Dream in Color Classy came in today so we are fully stocked in all the colors once again. Yay!

And......
I've been nominated for the Entreprenuer of the Year Award - can you believe that? I'm so excited!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Clapotis

Check this out! Here's a new Clapotis for ummm...the shop.....well, me! It's done in Mirasol Hacho in Color 308 and will take about 8 skeins. Hacho is a bit heavier than a sock weight yarn so it's knitting up beautifully on 3 mm. At our Knit Night - Angela and Marion were busy at work on Chevron scarves in two contrasting colorways with Hacho and I was so jealous I couldn't knit another thing. I kept trying to talk myself out of a new project but no luck as you can see - first thing Thursday morning I wound up a skein to give it a try. For $8 per skein - it's wonderful stuff - reminds me of Koigu and I've even had some customers comment on the same thing. Plus I love the fact that by purchasing this yarn, I'm actually helping out to build a school in Peru - how cool is that?

I'm going shopping at the wholesaler's on Monday - a bit dangerous I've found but fun. Picture a Costco size warehouse full of yarn. I could live there. Claire has brought in some great new sock yarn that I must have and Malabrigo has new lace!

I've been having such a good time in the shop - time absolutely flies. This past week I had some online customers visit on their way up north - we are an easy detour from the main cottage country highway! So...........so far, so good. Yay!

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Amazing!

Our first Saturday at the store was amazing - even with the Knitter's Fair in Kitchener going on which I believe draws all knitters from everywhere on earth. I had a visit from Meredith and Kim - two valued online customers from Napanee, Ontario - I've never met either of them just emails exchanged back and forth - and orders. Turns out they are "Calendar Girls" for Knitty 2008 calendar and they arrived with a beautiful framed, autographed photo of their picture knitting on Meredith's dock (naked, covered up by their knitting).

This picture will adorn a special spot in the shop and remind me always of the kindness of these two amazing women! Meredith and Kim - thank you, thank you, thank you! It's the perfect gift and I cannot even begin to say how grateful I am for your thoughtfulness!

Friday, September 07, 2007

Ahhh!


So it's Friday, I'm exhausted - no sleep! Well, I do have time to sleep but I keep wondering what the next day will bring at the shop so those thoughts wake me up way too early! I must say though, there is no other place I'd rather be - I'm growing very attached to being here. We had our first SnB on Wednesday night, lots of laughs - I said I would likely get a call from the landlord asking what exactly we sedate knitters were doing with all the hooting and hollering! My little sign guy (Ben, 23 and cute, cute, cute!) actually asked me if young people knit - he's a
silly boy because he asked this of three late thirties, mid forties women with pointy sticks in their hands.


Here's the inaugural group of Pick Up Sticks Chicks! (to the left and above) See Ben - chicks - we're chicks as in young chickens!

Lisa (my sister) and assistant extraordinaire finished her second thrum mitten for the shop but didn't want her picture taken! Nice mitt! I love working with my sister - we have lots of fun and lots of laughs. After the SnB, I was really tired and she wanted to know if I was going to actually stop the car to let her out at her driveway. Nope - tuck and roll Lisa, tuck and roll!
Angela knit the shop a baby surprise jacket out of Classy Dream in Color - gorgeous!
Next week there will be quite a bit of updating online - more Apple Laine including new colors, Oceanwind Knits in Premium Superwash Merino and Suri Silk, the debut of Red Corset Designs Osmosis and the Spotlight of the Week which will be Blue Sky Alpacas Hand Dyed Worsted, bulky and suri merino. I'm knitting this and oh my, oh my, oh my! You gotta get some!