A Knitter's Showcase

We usually have a visit every week (sometimes more than once) from Bronwyn and her family - Bronwyn is such a fantastic and fast! knitter and is so great about sharing her finished projects with us - I thought I would share them with you. Here's little India modelling the hat from Knitty. You can find the pattern here. Bronwyn made the hat from Dream In Color Classy Cool Fire and Happy Forest.

And her latest finished project - also for India - also in Dream in Color Classy - Some Summer Sky this time. The pattern can be found here. Lisa is knitting the same dress from Kim Cotton which can be found here.

Next on Bronwyn's list is this dress from Blue Sky Alpaca in Alpaca Silk for India to wear to a family wedding. She chose Kiwi and I cannot wait to see the finished project!

Knitting?

I've been knitting with some of the new yarns that I have in the shop and I love both of these. Cloud Cotton - super soft worsted weight knits up quick!

This is Araucania Ulmo Multi - I stopped into the wholesaler on Monday on the way to my grandmother's to pick up an order that was waiting and was just wondering around and what do I find - but this gorgeous yarn tripped me as I was walking by - I picked up a bag of each colorway, put it down, walked away, went back, stared at it, picked it up, put it down, went to put bags in my cars, came back, picked it up and brought it home. Well - not home but to the shop - it's really gorgeous stuff!

Here's what a knitter looks like when she ties the knot

Here's Aaron anxiously awaiting her arrival - it was such a beautiful wedding - we had so much fun and were so honored to be invited. Who would have thought when I met Sarah at another yarn shop two years ago that we would have become good friends and I would have attended her wedding!

Last Week was....

my birthday (Feb.22) - at our Knit Night, Lisa surprised me with a cake!

As usual we were packed to the rafters with knitters - although not everyone showed up and if the regulars ever show up all at the same time on the same night we will be spilling out into the street!



Here is Mary and Cathy - Cathy is opening a new business up the road so just stopped in for a break and a piece of cake!







Here's Jennifer sitting all by herself, concentrating on her hat! Can you see that fantastic scarf she's wearing - it's Tilli Tomas Disco Lights which will be shipped this week to Pick Up Sticks! Yeah! Angela, Lisa, Clare and Sarah gave me two skeins of Disco Lights in Pink for my birthday - gorgeous!





Here's Lisa and Carol - Carol was our first Learn to Knit student and now is just finishing off a great pair of socks for her husband!







Here's Vel, Sheila and Sherry - all busy knitting away!



Thanks to everyone who stopped in or phoned with birthday wishes! I was so thrilled!


There's also lots of new samples knit up in the store so if you have a chance to stop by and check them out you should.


This is a cute top knit by Angela from Mirasol Hacho - I've had my eye on this since the pattern and yarn arrived back in September! Sorry for the duplicate pictures but I could not figure out how to remove one of them. I can usually remove something I don't want removed but far be it from me to actually get this blogger thing to do what I want it to.


Here's my second Lucy in the Sky from Laura Chau knit from Dream in Color Classy in Flamingo Pie -ooooh but I love this color! I knit this same sweater for my sister in law for Christmas! Great pattern!



Here's some engineering genius from Perl Grey. This little green baby is Jane - it's a crossover croppy kind of sweater that is so cute - not cute for my body but really cute on someone small - it was knit by Linda who is a wonderful customer! Her husband asked us to get her to knit for the shop so she wouldn't buy so much!

This is Jo also from Perl Grey. I've discovered that I like to knit things that don't come together in the traditional way - it's much more interesting to be knitting and wondering how on earth the designer of the pattern is going to bring it all together and actually have a sweater at the end. This sweater started out with 2 narrow rectangles and has progressed to a wider body and one sleeve - the side seams are even grafted in some new fangled way. It's pure fun to knit! The neck is still on stitch holders - who knows what I'll get to do there? :)

Look at this Clare!

Two blogs in two days or maybe three I forget......the last two days have been a whirl wind of new yarn coming and going.........fun, fun, fun! 10 Imogen kits came in a few days ago and now there are only 2 left - looks like that it 'the' project from Fleece Artist. Even my landlord commented (an older Italian gentlemen)that you can't buy sweaters like that in the store. These are one of a kind - works of art. It's a good thing when he notices.....

I heard the best Valentine's story today - one of our customers, Marg, popped in to say hello and she told us about a wonderful random act of kindness. One of her friends was standing in line at the grocery store yesterday and the man in front of her had two beautiful bouquets of 12 white roses. After he finished paying for them - he turned to her friend and handed her a bouquet and said - "these are for you, I want to make sure you have a wonderful Valentine's". Can you believe that? I said, I would have pushed her out of the way and asked where mine were? Marg said she would have followed the guy home! "Joking!"

Mary stopped in for a knitting break today and paid me the greatest compliment ever. She said that me having this shop here has changed her life. She's a wonderful, warm hearted woman who is caring for two elderly parents and sometimes the burden and stress of it all can just get to be too much - she says just a half hour in here with us gives her the energy to keep on going for the rest of the day. I was so thrilled - I always pictured a shop where people would feel comfortable to stop in and knit for a bit - make new friends - a place where everyone is welcome and it seems that I have done just that. A good day....a very good day!

This is not SMART.

My neighbor drives one of these and today I was shocked to see it pull out onto our road. I'm all for the environment and everything but driving this on a day like today is just not SMART. They practically have bicycle tires and I swear if you ran over it, it would just feel like a little bump. The roads are still snow covered and slippery - it would have been SMART to leave this baby in the garage. My husband drives a dump truck which when fully loaded weighs over 75,000 lbs - how much chance would this SMART car have against a big DUMB dump truck. Oh and by the way - who named it the SMART car - what makes it smart?

Today was quite the drive in to work - I'm a big chicken when it comes to driving in the snow - not because I doubt my abilities but because I doubt everyone elses. This morning was a case in point. There were cars completely covered with snow speeding along the road, creating their own mini blizzards from all the snow blowing off them - driving as if it's the middle of June. Then there was the lady with no snow tires who pulled out to try and beat the snow plow coming along - she was inches from being scooped up - inches I say! When I passed her she was completely oblivious to what she had done - either that or she was so embarassed she dare not take her eyes from the road. Last night was no better - snow covered roads, poor visibility and some guy rushing to his funeral passed me at 60mph on a two lane country road with oncoming traffic. Seriously - what's the big rush? Every snow storm there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of accidents all over the place - hmmmm - is it bad roads or bad drivers? I know what I think......

Here's some knitting - just so you know I'm not completely grumpy!

Here's our darling Jeanette with her newly finished vest in Dream in Color Cocoa Kiss - this is Mary's sweater - she used Duets Sock Yarn - who'd a thunk it?

Hey it's Knit Night tonight! Come and join the fun if you can!