Opal Saphir coming later this week

I am excited about this new yarn coming from Opal. I should get it this week. It is a Opal Saphir and is a Sport weight yarn. Much quicker knit that the 6 ply or sock yarn yet the same great self patterning. It is available in 4 colours. All the colours are similar to the rodeo collection. I will give more detail once I actually see it and feel it. I can't wait.

Uni 2005 Colours and what they match

I was at the store on Wednesday night and instead of doing things I should have been doing I decided to colour match the new 2005 Uni to other sock yarns. I get a lot of requests for which colours match when people are buying yarn for the Bees Knees patterns. Buying yarn over the internet is hard when you can't actually hold the yarn and compare colours for yourself. These colour matches are just my opinion but I do have a good eye for colour. I have also put and * beside the colour matchI like the best.

Uni Gold - 1268
Sprintime -1220
Element 1073
Rodeo 1150
Online Caribbean 733* and 732

Uni Light Brown -1262
Prisma Rust
Rodeo 1154
Rainforest Owl*
Regia Cotton 4082, 4085
Regia Canadain 4731, 4730
Regia Brazil 5479

Uni Mauve - 1265
Opal Cotton 1173
Petticoat
Regia Canadian 4730, 4732*

Light Blue - 1267
Regia Cotton 4075
Petticoat
Regia Canadian 4726, 4727*

Teal - 1264
Regia Cotton 4075, 4081, 4086
Regia Jubilee 5465
Regia Canadain 4726
Online Sierra 581*

Rust - 1260
Prisma Rust
Regia Cotton 4079
Regia Canadain 4732
Online Sierra 580*, 581

Dark Brown - 1261
Regia Cotton 4082, 4085, 4079
Online Sierra 579
Mosiak Brown 1117
Regia Brazil 5485, 5482, 5477
Regia Canadian 4735* , 4732, 4733, 4734
Online Caribbean 732

Dark Blue - 1269
Regia Cotton 4086, 4084
Regia Brazil 5477, 5486
Online Caribbean 735, 739*
Prisma Navy 1194
Online Sierra 582

Lime Green - 1266
Online Caribbean 737, 732*
Rainforest Chameleon
Regia Canadain 4735

I have missed the medium brown and will update later when I get time.
I hope this helps with the colour selections. It was fun to do. If I get time on Saturday I will colour match the older Uni colours too. I will put this info on my web site if it ever gets back to normal.

And the Winner is -

Zebra
When Rainforest Collection first came out I wonder which yarn would be most popular and I thought it would be parrot but it turns out it was Zebra, Tiger is the next most popular. I have 1 skein left and then it is gone. The other colors are selling fast too. There is a second printing of the Rainforest in production right now but won't be here for a few months. I actually didn't like the Zebra sock yarn so it just shows I don't have popular taste. Since I have made a pair of each color so far my favorite is the Flamingo it really has a feathery look to it. My second favorite is the Parrot. I guess I am a bird lover when it comes to the sock yarn. I made several pair of Owl socks and they are very nice too. I just don't like brown for me. I made a pair for my Dad and he loves them.
I have been knitting like crazy but nothing finished to report. The schools in BC are still on strike so I am home everyday with my special needs son. It is going OK but I am really busy. He is learning to walk with a walker so we have had a lot of chance to practice this week. Yestreday he took 11 steps on his own in the walker. For anyone who doesn't follow the blog, he is 17 years old and we have been working on walking since he was about 10 so this is huge. I really beleive someday he will walk.
The store was fun on Wed. We put a big display of scarves in the window. I have been working on scarves as store samples for weeks now on Sat. I will get some pictures. Scarves are fun to knit.

Pictures of Meika

Well I wouldn't be a normal Grandma if I didn't show pictures of my Grandchild. So here are some pictures.

The first one is Megan and Meika. Two happy girls. Meika is 4 months old now and very fun. She is a really good baby and laughs and smiles all the time.

This picture is Meika in her Noro Silk Garden sweater. It is still huge on her but the sleeves roll up ok. It should fit her a while. She has learned a new tongue game and it is so cute. She worked so hard to learn this. She learned while she was visiting and has it perfected now.

Now on to the next item. The LLama yarn. These are the colours the llama merino wool blend are in. The blend is 80% llama and 20% merino wool.

I am making a pair of socks with the LLama angora. They are so soft and warm. These will be my favorite socks when it gets cold. It is hard to get a good picture to show just how fuzzy these are. I love them. I was thinking about giving them to someone as a Christmas gift but I think I will give them to me.

As for the rest of my knitting. I have parked the Bravo baby sweater for a few weeks while working on the Batik shawl. It is nearly done and will show a picture when it is done. Since I did it in fall colours I should get it done before winter. I need to get back at the Baby Bravo sweater as I want it for Meika for Christmas.

New Opal Yarns

The new Opal 6ply sock and sweater yarn is here and wow are they ever nice. The colours are very rich. I love the red and multi of course.
Also the New 2005 Uni colours are here. There are more earthy colors available now.
Thay are great for trim on the Bees Knees patterns
I am in the process of putting together list of which yarns match. This will be available on my new web site once it is operational. It is coming soon.

Also coming this week will be the Llama and angora or llama and merino wool sock yarn. It is amazing. I am knitting a pair of the llama angora socks right now. The are so warm. You can feel the warmth when knitting them. I will post here once it is all listed.
Had a good week. Megan and Meika were here so got very little else done but play with the baby. Wow is she cute. I will post a picture of her later once I sift through the hundreds of pictures and pick the best. She is so fun to play with now. She turned 4 months old on Friday. The store was great yesterday but it didn't get any pictures.

Into the gold

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all the Canadians who read this. Enjoy your turkey dinner and your friends and family. We are having our turkey tonight and lots of friends and family will be here. Should be fun.

I am into the gold on the Batik shawl. I really like it. I put it on 2 needles to see how big it is plus get a better picture. it is a little over 3 feet wide. I have the rest of the gold to knit and then gold to red. i am knitting ith 2 gold and 1 green now so I am nearly done with the green.

It is taking a lot of yarn I had to get into a 2nd skein f green so i know it will take a 2nd of red and gold too. It feels so nice. I can't wait to finish it. we certainly are having shwal weather here. It was stormy and windy all night. We lost power for a few minutes  so nothing drastic. Living on an island when the power goes out on a holiday weekend you worry.

The store was great on Saturday. I had a young man in who wants a sweater made with the pure Alpaca so I need to make that this week. I am making it on the machine so it should go fairly quickly. I got the back done yesterday. He also wants 2 pair of Owl socks. They are a nice guy colour and will match his sweater well. Mom was at the store all day and it was quite busy. Lots of knitters in needing fall projects.

I bought a swift for the store when it first opened but I have nowhere to put it up at the store. Since I had to wind all that alpaca I brought it home. I was busy doing other things in the bathroom (supervising my son) so this is where I set it up. I had to take a picture as I thought it was funny. Who else winds wool in the bathroom. It worked really well talk about mulit tasking. Well the alpaca is all wound I just need to find time to knit.


My daughter and Meika are coming tomorrow for a few days so I am really looking forward to that.

My son is very busy working on recovering the web site so it looks good again. So hopefully soon when you go to funknits.com it will look good again.

Batik Shawl

When Brenda came to the store last week and I saw her shawl I was very inspired to make one. I was also inspired by the turning leaves to make the shawl in three colours using Opal Batik, red, green and gold. I am just into the green and I can't wait to get into the gold to see how it looks. I am knitting it with 3 strands of Batik held together. I did 20 rows of all red then 20 rows 2 strands red and 1 green, then 20 rows of 2 strands green and 1 red, then 3 green etc. I am pleased with it so far. It is very thick and soft and that was the feel I was looking for. Too bad I have to work and do so much. I wish I could just knit all day and night an get this done. It is nice to knit and is knitting up quite quickly as it is thick yarn with the tree strands held together.

I have been soooooo busy. The kids are out of school in BC as the teachers are on strike and the girl who works for me with my special needs boy is away sick so I have had my boy 24 /7 for the last few days and will have for the next few days too. I know for all you mothers who have kids that seems like, big deal, but with a deafblind very busy teenager that is a big deal. He is doing great right now and is extremely active and wants to be played with all day. He is wearing me out. I was thinking of teaching him to knit. I know other blind knitters. Maybe that is what I will do today with him. My Mom has to work in the store as I will be working at home all day. I hope she has a good day.

 

Shawl fun

I had a great day at the store yesterday. It was busy all day  and I got orders for 2 more sweaters to knit and more socks, so I should be busy this week.

Brenda came to the store and we had a nice visit. It was fairly quiet so we had time for fun. She helped me pick out colours for a sweater that my Mom is going to make me for my birthday. Lucky me. I will post about it once I know for sure the colours I want. Brenda.'s shawl is amazing. It is so soft and snuggly. The sweatermaker yarn is really nice. I need to get more in the store soon.

I decided I want to make that shawl too. I am going to use 3 colours of Batik and 3 strands thick. I am going to try and do a shading change of colours.

I haven't done a swatch yet to see how it will look but I can see it in my mind and it looks great. I am too lazy tonight to wind yarn so it will have to wait.

My son is going to help me with my web site to get it looking good again. I think we are a long ways from having the online store but it is going to be a work in progress for a while. In the meantime there is always eBay. I better go get knitting.