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!