Great New yarns

I got in some great new yarns and they are driving me crazy. I have so many projects
on the go now but I want to knit with the new yarns. So instead I am venting in this blog. I am at the store and it is quiet now so all of the yarns are haunting me. Here is what I got in today so you will see why I am being tortured.
Country Silk I got it in Earth, Opal, Hydranga, Loden, Marine and Wine. It is amazing yarn. I got 2 shawl patterns too. Easy Mesh Triangle and the Lotus Blossom Shawl. The Lotus blossom shawl out of the Marine Country Silk is what I really want to knit.
Hemp Yarn in all the colours. It is really nice. Much nicer than I thought
Ecoknits Cotton in all the colours but olive is back ordered. It is so nice. I will definately make a top for myself out of it.
I got in the Sari Silk to try but I don't like it as much as Mango Moon. So I won't carry it.
I also got in some more Sirdar Yoyo.
Anyways I feel better for venting. I am going to knit a hat with the Hemp yarn as I need to show the customers what it is like knit up. Great excuse right.
Will post a picture when done.

Cotton Sale went great

The cotton sale went great yesterday. We were really busy all day and I met lots of new people. There were plenty of tourists on the island for the holiday weekend and lots of knitters. I'm glad they found the store.
Our visitor from farthest away yesterday was from Spain. She was freezing and bought a large cable shawl I had for sale. Here is her picture with her friends.


Carol was in the store picking up some Regia cotton sock yarn and she brought in the most beautiful sweater. This was knit with all good quality wools blended together It is a real work of art -



Brenda came to the store yesterday. We had a lot of fun. She brought in her Clapotis. It is beautiful . I am glad I saw this in person because the pictures don't do this shawl justice. (even the one I took) I think I will make this sometime. She made it out of Super 10 cotton in a jade colour. Really turned out nice. Looks great on and is so soft.


A lady in the store at the time wanted to buy Brenda's shawl from her. It was kind of funny.
I also got a picture of Ming wearing the baby outfit I made for my new Grandbaby if it is a girl. It is knit with Opal Uni and hand dyed yarn held together.

Ming used to have socks but they got bought right off her feet the other day. I can't keep enough baby socks in stock. - Note to myself - Must knit faster. My new grandbaby will need socks too.
Last for the day
Mom finished the knitalong sweater, knit out of Super 10 cotton. It is amazing. Much nicer than the picture looks. Brenda saw it and she is inspired to knit it too. She is making hers in pale yellow cotton.
Mine is still half way up the back. Too many knitting distractions, but now I want to get it finished.
Here is the picture of the first finished knit along sweater. My mom is great at finishing sweaters. I wish I inherieted that trait. I am great at starting them.

I rearranged the store

Well I have had a really busy week. I got 2 huge boxes of yarn in during the week. I had to take some heavy winter yarns out of the store to make room for all the summer yarns. Wow I will never get used to getting bags and bags of yarn. I always get inspired to knit something. So this time the Alessandra Gemma in white and the FFF Jolliet Multi in the colour 8068 were the victims of my knitting addiction.
I knit this scarf

with Gemma and Jolliet



I also got in Sari Cotton


Patagonia a chunky weight cotton. I only got 2 colours of the 5 I ordered. It is beautiful yarn and I got some great patterns to go with it. I also got a bit of Cotton Tie dye. I think I will get more of that it is really nice.


Here is all my fancy yarns I got in

And the best for the last Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool

I can imagine a sweater out of this yarn in my future. It is beautiful.
Here is my last picture for the day. My garden. Spring has really sprung here. If you look close you can see the store behind my garden. That is how close the store is to my house. The dark area just behind that telephone pole.

Tomorrow is my first Spring sale. All the cotton in the store will be 10% off including the New Regia Cotton Sock yarn. This should be fun.

Baby Sweaters

Carol - one of our frequent customers at Fun Knits was in on Saturday and brought in the cutest sweater and hat to show us. It is made from Mission Falls Cotton The pattern is from Mission Falls - Wee Knits Too
Here it is. Carol was too shy to pose with it. Isn't it cute.

I spent the day at the store playing with Opal and deciding which colours match. I got in the Bees Knees
(go to Current Opal Collections then to Children's Sweater patterns) patterns for the store.
I also made up this Easter Opal basket for the window.

Then I started a baby sweater for my new grandchild (due in June) I made this using 2 strands of Opal held together as the pattern called for worsted weight yarn. The tension turned out perfect and I had plenty of yarn for the sweater, hat and a few pair of baby socks. This is the yarn I used Uni Turquoise and the Magic 1051
Well here it is

Here is the pattern. I had to adapt it a bit. I added stitches to the sleeves as they looked too tight. The hat is just knit in the round on 4mm needles, cast on 60 st. and knit. If you want the pattern for it email at shelmack@telus.net . This outfit will fit a newborn. I just need to make the socks and or bootees and it will be done.
I have started another outfit the same in Uni pink and hand dyed yarn and will post it when done.

Regia Cotton Socks matched great

I finished sock 2 and now I am going to try and get a baby pair out of the left over.
The heels and toes matched up good. That is important to me. I know some knitters don't care and some don't match the yarn on purpose but I like to get a perfect match.
Here are the perfect matched pair.

Now I want to make another colour. I think I will make # 4079 This colour looks like a warm sunset. Perfect summer socks.
Back to knitting.

The baby socks are so cute. I am keeping these for my new Grandbaby due in June.

Not much left of that ball of yarn

Regia Cotton is a hit

The new Regia cotton is definately a hit. I sold some yesterday in the store and got more on hold for someone. I put it on eBay today and have a bid already plus lots of interest and questions. I still haven't got around to making the socks I got as far as threading the machine.

I am making a pair with this colour
I spent have spent the last few days knitting a poncho with Noro Silk Garden. I hope they will want this pattern for the new book. It is great. Takes 6 balls of yarn. I am making it one colour on one side and another complimentary colour on the other side so depending on your mood your can wear it either way. So far I like it. When it is done I will show a picture. Should be done soon , it is knitting up quickly. It is knit all in one piece, I hate finishing.
Well anyways I better get at packaging up some parcels to mail tomorrow. Had a good auction end today.

Later same day:
I decided to knit a sock tonight so here it is


Wow is this nice yarn. I usually sell the socks I make but I am keeping this pair. They are so nice. They are really soft and have a good body to the yarn. Tomorrow we will find out how well the yarn matches up. I am too tired to make its mate tonight.

Look what I got today

I went to the mail today and the Regia Cotton Tip and Top Yarn has arrived. It is so new I can't even link to the Diamond yarn site as they don't have it on yet.
It is wonderfully soft and I have to start a pair of sock tonight. I think this is the nicest cotton sock yarn I have ever felt and the colours are amazing. I hope my pictures can do it justice.
Here is the order all over my couch


Here is the close up of the colour samples.

I will be putting this yarn on eBay tomorrow.

I am going to make a pair of socks tonight on my knitting machine so I will post them when done. Now the tough part to decide what colour to knit first!!!
I am always excited to get new yarn in.

Machine Knitters Love yarn

Today was a great day. I opened the store at 10:00am so all the knitters from camp could come and check out the store. Well come they did. All of them. Here is a couple of pictures.

Our store is only 350 sq ft. Hard to beleive it held this many people. We kept the door open so there was enough air in there for all of us.



It was great fun and I must admit my best sales in one day ever. They all loved the store.
One down part of the day, the computer at the store crashed (luckily after all the ladies from camp were done buying). I think it got a virus or something. I will be taking it to the shop on Monday. It just started saying files were missing and pictures were missing. I went to check Norton and it was empty. All my files were empty. I couldn't even turn it off. Luckily I backed up all the store inventory and info. But all my sales records from today are gone. Maybe we burned out the computer ringing in so many purchases in one hour. By 11:30 they were all gone and Mom and i just sat there and said "Wow that was busy."
My sister ran the store today from noon on so I could go back to camp. She had to write receipts the old fashioned way and use a calculator. Embarassing for our high tech store.
I learned so much today. I got the back of a sweater done with lots of help so know I hope I can remember everything to finish the rest of it. I will post a picture of the sweater when (if) finished.
Got no hand knitting done this weekend but lots of machine knitting. The camp is over tomorrow but I am finished tonight. I have to look after the boys tomorrow. I am exhausted so I don't mind. There is only so much information my brain can take in.

Machine Knitters Retreat

I am sure learning a lot at the Machine Knitters retreat. I am learning I have a lot to learn about machine knitting. It is way more complex than hand knitting but it is certainly much faster. I have met a lot of great people and some very talented knitters. Tomorrow we are going to open the store 2 hours early for the machine knitters. Should be a lot of fun. There are 30 knitters at the camp and my store is 300 sq. feet. I will try and get some pictures. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow night.

Yarn reps visited today

Today was fun at the store. Gary and Stephanie the yarn reps for Diamond and Nova Yarns came.


You can't imagine how much fun it is to look at all the new yarns. I ordered lots of new yarn, Here are some of the new yarns to come into the store and maybe on the eBay store.
Alessandra Gemma
Elizabeth Lavold Silky Wool in colours 11,12,14, 16,001 and 010. I am getting some great Elizabeth Lavold pattern books too.
FFF Karnak in colours 3008,3004, 3032 and 3034
Isis colours 815,814,825,818
Jolliet Multi colours 8083, 8061 and 8068
And I got lots of great cotton yarns and some Supersocks in solid colour and colours.
Too much to list. Now I need a bigger store.
I didn't get much knitting done today. I got the baby vest done in Noro Silk Garden done. It is so cute. It is for the new pattern book.
I also worked on the Silk Garden Spiral socks, hope to get them finished tomorrow.

My Knit along top grew a few inches today too.
I am going to be really busy for the next few days. I am going to Machine Knitters Retreat here on Quadra Island. It starts tomorrow night. So now I have to go pack up my machine and get ready.
I got in the Opal Rodeo today but probably won't get it on the eBay store until next week. I am just way too busy. Sorry for the delay but believe me it is worth the wait.
The Rodeo is wonderful. I wish I could knit a pair of socks in each colour.

Done a few inches on the Knit along top

Here are the pictures of how much I have done on the Knit along top It is really nice to knit. I am enjoying knitting with cotton for a change.

Here is a close up shot. It is a really pretty pattern


I like the colour a lot.
I need to put that aside for a few days and work on my Noro projects. So back to wool. Can't complain Noro is amazing wool and fun to knit with.

Marnie the Star of the day

Marnie came into the store today to show me her newly finished Mango Moon Klaralund sweater. She did a wonderful job on the sweater and in record time. WOW!! it is gorgeous. I had to run home and get the camera. See for yourself.
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In the background is Ming our store doll she is dress in her new Sirdar YoYo sweater and her Mango Moon hat. I just couldn't crop her out of the picture she is too cute.
As always it was a great day in the store. My sister Judy was over today and learning how to run the store. She is going to take over next Saturday. She did a great job and anyone who comes in the store next week can meet her. Judy loves knitting scarves and she enjoyed all the possibilities of combining the yarns all day. She showed great restraint and only went home with 3 balls of yarn.
My Mom and I are going to Machine Knitters camp next weekend. I am lucky I don't have to leave home for camp it is right on Quadra Island at Camp Homewood. I went last year too and learned so much. This year I hope to learn lots too.
We have new yarn coming in next week. Opal Rodeo will be here early in the week. Watch for it on my EBay auction On my Knit along top I got about 3" knit. I will show a picture tomorrow. It is really nice.

I started the Knit along

Well I finally got the little carioca baby vest off the needles so I can start the knit along top. Here is a picture of the baby vest. It is nearly done. Just needs the armholes done and sewn up.It turned out really nice. That yarn is so soft. Hopefully I will finish it tomorrow.
I wanted to use my new addi turbo needles to knit the cotton top. I knit a swatch and my tension is fine on 4mm needles. I am knitting the top with Estelle Royal 100% mecerized cotton in sky blue.
I finally got the top cast on and then it was time to close the store and go home.

Today was a great day in the store. Lots of customers were in. Karen's daughter is having a baby in June also so we have a lot in common. She is very busily makimg baby sweaters too.

Here is a picture of her cute hooded sweater made with Opal Sweater yarn. That is the most popular colour and I can't keep it in stock. hope to get more soon.