Design contests

Now that the contest are over here are the pictures of my knitting that I haven't been able to show. I found out tonight I didn't get in the finals for the Cherry Tree Hill contest. Here is the shawl I knit for that contest. The contest was to design a garment using this colour Sugar Maple. I called this the Sugar Maple Sunshine shawl. At the top was round section of ribbon, that was the sun and the sunrays are streaming down the shawl. I will be anxious to see the winning garment on Friday. Stay tuned. I will post the winner.

 Here is Meika looking sweet as ever wearing the Pinwheel sweater. When this sweater is worn one way it fits a baby. It has a very large shawl collar. The sleeves are rolled up for the baby size.

As the baby grows the sleeves can roll down and the sweater turned over to fit a larger child. the little girl wearing it in this picture is nearly 4.

And this is Megan wearing her sweater. It can also be worn upside down as a more casual sweater with a large collar. I knit the baby sweater first. It started out to become an afghan and at a certain point in the afghan it became a sweater. Then Megan wanted one too so I got her to pick the colours for the sweater and then I knit it. This sweater is actually really easy to knit. The edge is quite simple but takes a long time to do. It is just a really elaborate bind off. I am glad the contests are over and I am really glad I won the elann contest. now I can buy more yarn, just what I need.

Speaking of yarn I have 2 sale yarns for the month of June. I will blog about them tomorrow.

Oh My Gosh I Won

Well I can't beleive it I won the Gold at elann design contest. I am thrilled. Wow. I will post more later once I can type again.

Quadra's Newest potential knitter

Welcome Rowan, ( great name they didn't even know she was named after Rowan yarn) She is 1 week old and 5 pounds. Just a little one. Her proud Mom's Lisa Marie and Deb brought her in the store the other day. I found out she has a good knitting genes so we will give her a few years and start teaching her to knit. Isn't she sweet. We put a ball of Rowan Kid Soft beside her for size comparison. I am sure there are lots of great knitting projects coming this babies way.

Regia Canadian Fashion colours

I got the shipment of Regia today so I now have all the colours of Regia Canadian Fashion colours in stock. They are available at the Web Store. Just click Web Store ond then the currency you wish to shop in. Scroll down to find the Regia Canadain yarn. This is great sock yarn in many wonderful colours.

Island Hues

This is a new line of yarn I am offering at Fun Knits both in store and at the Web Store. It is called Island Hues. It is the same yarn as Season's yarn which is now sold out. 100% Merino in lace weight and fingering weight. The colours are either vibrant or soft and pastel. They are all hand dyed by Judy Maclean of Vancouver Island. What is shown here is my entire order. Lots of yummy soft yarn.

It has since been labeled and looks like this.

This is a close up of Orange hues. It turned out beautiful. If you want to see the rest go to Web Store and follow the links to Island Hues. I love this yarn and am just working on ways of plying the lace weight to get new neat colour combinations. Stay tuned for more on that.

Small but fun knitting get together

Last night was our knitting guild meeting and ther was only 4 of us. It was quite fun and I have a few pictures to show. These are very talented knitter. Helen just finished a Party scarf. It looks great.

Marnie poor girl didn't have any yarn so she is knitting a bag with bags. It is great. She literally cut up a piece of plastic bag when she needed more material. It looks really neat and i will definately post a picture of this bag whe it is done.

Carol is working on some nice warm fuzzy socks for winter. These are great, a cuff of fuzzy yarn then sock yarn with a stripe of fuzzy yarn now and then. These are so cute. I will show these finished to so stay tuned.

We had fun, knit and chatted about  - you guessed it yarn.

In Store Sale and Knitting Guild Info

This week we are having an instore sale at Fun Knits. All sock yarn will be 10% off. I just got in new Trekking XXL in 15 colours. Its great yarn.
We are having our next Knitting guild meeting on Thursday evening at 7pm. The dishcloth pattern I picked for this month is called the Knitted Dragonfly Cloth. I thought this is a great sunny summertime dish cloth.
I haven't found a sock patterna s I am very behind in my sock knitting and all my knitting. I actually got my knitting done for the Cherry Tree hill contest but it needs a bit of finishing. I hope to get it totally done tomorrow. Pictures coming soon.

Get ready for summer

Here is a great sun hat made with Opal Petticoat # 1336. This pattern is free with the purchase of any Cotton or Silk at my Web Store. Be sure while you are there to check out the great sales I am having. I have Opal Rodeo Cotton, Opal Silk, Opal Batik, Opal Rodeo, Elements and Prisma all on sale. It is very rare to find Opal on sale so take atvantage while the sale lasts. These sales are in store too.



Back to the Sun hat. It only took 1 day to knit it and if it is knit on 3.5mm (4US) needles it will fit an adult as shown. This hat is for my Mom for Mother's Day - Happy Mother's Day Mom - I Love you!!.

If this pattern is knit on 2.75mm (2US) needles it will fit a child. It is fun and easy to knit. It only took 40 gr of yarn so I have lots left for a child's hat for Meika.

Had a great day at the store yesterday. Lots of customers and I was busy all day. No store pictures to show I was too busy knitting the little cotton hat. Brenda was over and that was fun as always. Happy Anniversary Brenda and enjoy your Malabrigo. It just gets better the more you snuggle it.

It came

Well Trish was right, the new Petticoat Cotton is way nicer than the picture. I took a picture of the colours in order next to the poster. They seem richer than the picture. They are nice and soft too. For all of you who bought last wekk your yarn will ship out on Monday. All of the colours are still available at the Web Store.

I also got in a real treat, something I have been waiting for - the Uni in white. It is really nice and quite white. I only got a few in but I hope to get more so if you want one you better shop quick. I put all the Uni colours on the Web Store tonight.

As for my knitting I want to make a sun hat for Meika out of the new Petticoat cotton. I am just deciding what colour. My contest knitting is nearly done. It is turning out nice. I will show a picture of it when it is done.

Opal Petticoat Cotton is coming

The new Opal Petticoat Cotton is on its way and I have it posted in the Web Store. You can shop now as it is selling quickly, I won't be able to ship it until Monday, May 15th but I am taking orders now. Trish at Ladybug yarns said it is way nicer than the pictures. I can't wait to get it. I think I like 1338 the best, but that might change once I see it. I will take some pictures once it arrives.

Do you remember this post when I mentioned I entered the elann contest, well I got an email today saying "send in the garment" as I am in the top ten. I was so excited. Top 10, that is good enough for me, can you imagine if I actually win, I will need medical help. Now this month will go very slow. I should be able to get a lot of knitting done if it slows down enough. I am still working on the item for the Cherry Tree Hill contest. It has to be in the mail by May 24th at the latest to get there on time. I am nearly done so I should get it to them on time.

I also got some commision knitting to do in a hurry. 5 Pairs of socks, now pairs aren't my strong suit but when it is a job item I can usually get it done. My Mom is going to do 1 pair, Deb is going to do a pair and I will do the rest. I will post pictures once I am done one. They are socks from the Nancy Bush Knitting Vintage Socks book. The socks are for a photo shoot being done in New York with kids dressed like some Nursery ryhmes. The costume designer wants hand knit old fashion looking socks, so I think those will do. Between the socks and the contest knitting I am very busy.

Opal Batik Sale

I am having a Opal Batik sale. I have lots of this yarn in stock so for the month of May it will be on sale for $15.00 Canadian and $13.75 US. You can buy it in the store it at the Web Store. Click on Web Store and then pick the currency you wish to shop in.

This yarn is 60% superwash wool, 30% Acrylic and 10% polyamid. It is very soft and hard wearing yarn. Great for socks, hats, mitts - machine wash and dry

The gauge is 24st. and 32 rows on 3.25mm (US3) needles. The 200 gr ( 7 oz) skein contains 600 meters (656 yards)
I love Batik. It makes great socks, my husband has 2 pair, one in the purple/grey and red. He loves them and they wash and wear very well.

I just got in the new Interweave magazine. It is great this month. I picked out at least 5 sweaters I would love to make from it. It will be in the store on Wed.

Helen's New Sweater and Bathroom order at Fun Knit

Helen stopped by the store yesterday to sit and knit. When she comes to the store she always brings this lovely basket full of yarn, needles and books. This basket can hold a lot. When she shops she never needs a bag it just goes in this wonderful knitting basket. She is wearing her latest finished garment. It is called Kimono. I searched the internet but sorry couldn't find a link to the pattern anywhere. It is sure lovely. She knit it with Colinette Giotto, Isis and Country Silk. I looks great on you Helen. Good job.

Here is the side view.


Now about Bathroom order. If any of you have ever been to Fun Knits you know it is a very tiny store. We have only 300 sq. feet. We do not have a store room and so we have used the bathroom to store extra yarn and this became quite chaotic. Just try and imagine. The funniest story about the bathroom being a store room, One day my Mom comes out of the bathroom with a armload of yarn she is going to buy. She announced that was the only time she ever shopped for yarn in a bathroom. Anyways my husband put up shelves in the bathroom the other day and it turned chaos into order. We have room for more yarn now and Mom can still shop.  I must have looked in the bathroom 10 times yesterday just to enjoy the order. Doesn't take much to thrill me.

Spring has sprung

Spring is definately here in BC. We have had a few days of beautiful weather. I have been working in the yard a lot and not blogging very faithfully. I have been doing a lot of knitting but can't blog about it because the knitting is for contests. I don't expect to win either contest but it is just fun I will blog about it once the contests are over. I knit a round item for the Elann contest and I am now knitting an item for the Cherry Tree Hill contest. Lots of fun. I also have the most serious case of One sockitis I have ever had, I have 5 socks done and no pairs. I usually will knit 2 pair of socks at once but never 5. Maybe this is one of the hazards of owning a yarn store. Lots of new yarns to try.

I only have 1 picture form the store this week and it is a good one. Here is a picture of Terry wearing her Noro sweater. The pattern was originally written for cotton but she improvised and what a beautiful sweater she got. It has nice cables on it but they didn't show up that well in the picture. Good job Terry.

I just got in more Malibrigo - 6 more colours 157, 194, 148, 27, 44 and 96. So much yarn so little time.

Another bit of news that I will blog more about is - Fun Knits is going to have a booth at the Victoria Knit-Out on June 11th. I will be bringing lots of sock yarn. I am sure I will share more about this as it come closer. So if you live in the area or even close by mark this date on your calendar and stop in to say "HI".