A fun week with Meika

I had a very fun week playing with Meika. I got hardly any knitting done but that is ok. I have lots of pictures of Meika but first here is an update on Sweetie. He is getting a lot better. He still won't go outside on his own. My husband has to go out with him a few times a day. He is finding his place in our home and has hissed and hit all of the other animals. He spent his first week here sleeping on the couch and now he is starting to explore and play a bit. He is looking a lot better and has gained a bit of weight. He is saying hi to everyone in this picture.

Now on to Meika. First thing I want to mention Meika is modeling for the new Bees Knees Pattern Peacock. It is sure a cute pattern and the sweater looks very cute on her. Good going Holli, another great pattern. Here is a bunch of pictures of our fun week together. I noticed I don't have any pictures of Megan, She was here too but Meika was in the spot light.

Here she is watering Grandma's flowers and herself. She is walking now.

In her pool. It was a nice hot week.

Playing with her Little People castle. She loved this toy.

Playing in the sand with me at the beach. We went swiming a few times in the ocean while she was here. The water is still quite cold but Meika didn't care, she just charged in. She walked into the water really deep and then I carried her in up to my neck and she loved it. She is a water baby for sure.

I will be posting the Flashy Finger gloves pattern on Aug 1st and the yarn for making it, Opal Saphir will be our August sale yarn. Watch for  this.

Only a few days left of the Online sale and free Mini Opals with a $50. purchase.

Quick update on Sweetie

Sweetie is a male cat, we took him to the Vet today and she figures he is about 6 years old, He is improving a lot everyday. I gave him a bath yesterday and he looks a lot better now. He has a long ways to go to be totally better.

Lot of pictures

I have a bunch of pictures today and a warning: My last picture is a very mangy cat so if you are easily grossed out don't look at it. I will explain below.

The first 3 pictures are of Mom's pinwheel sweater. She used elann Highland wool. Ming is our model and her hat and socks clash with the sweater. This sure turned out great.


This is a sweater Karen made for her Grand daughter. It is pure white but a bad picture of it. It is a Sirdar pattern and made with Sirdar 4ply. Next week we will get to see this little girl in it I hope. They are coming to visit. Megan and Meika are coming today for a week . I am excited. Meika is walking now so I am sure she will be into everything. I need to baby proof today.

This is a picture of a new knitter (forgot her name) hope she will forgive me. She knit this little purse then felted it. She has wool for a sweater as her next project. She is doing a great job. Cute purse

This is a terrible picture of our new cat Sweetie. Don't look if you are squeamish. We don't know if it is male or female yet we haven't moved it too much to look. This poor cat has been around outside for a few months. We thougth it was one of the neighborhood wild cats and wasn't doing very well. You see when you live on a small Island lots of stray animals turn up. People think it is a good spot to dump a stray as they won't go home from an island. These strays then breed and then raise the kittens in the wild. In the bush across from out house there must be 20-50 cats. You can't get near any of them once they are older than a new kitten. We feed and befriend one of the wild cats. His name is Spot and he only comes in to eat. He is a very spooked cat. Anyways back to Sweetie. This cat has been hanging around the field of wild cats and getting the tar beat out of him for about 2 months. He was starving to death. A few days ago he came in the yard and my husband got him some food and he ate like he had never seen food before. He then jumped up on my husbands lap and lay down and purred. Certainly not a wild cat. So needless to say he hasn't left. He has now adopted us. He is in really rough shape. I hope we can get him better with lots of food, safety from the other cats and lots of love. This cat is a really sweet and social animal. He has been a well loved cat at sometime in his life. I know a lot of people from Campbell River and Quadra read the blog so if anyone knows this cat or has lost this cat let me know. I am hoping this will be a good news story and the next pictures of Sweetie will be good ones. We called him/her?? Sweetie because he is just sweet.

The contest has a winner

We have a winner - Shannon - she is winning 4 balls of Gedifra Sportivo

3 runners up Deb, Teresa, and Susan will win 2 balls

The most common guess was scarf/shawl combination. So many of you were very close. This was a fun contest. I enjoyed reading all the answers. I have emailed all the entrants but a few emails got returned so you can read about it here.

A Scrawl is

SC - Scarf, R- Shrug and AWL - shawl. I had 4 people who guessed it right and I have 1 winner and 3 runners up. The pattern will be on the website under free patterns and can also be accessed from the Web Store. Let me know what you think of the garment.
So here is the Scrawl. My sister in law Nikki is kindly modeling this for me . Here is the pattern
Worn as a scarf

Worn as a Shrug

Worn as a shawl

Ok and now you will all know how nuts I am. I tried it on my dog Bella. It looks so cute on her. She loves to get dressed up. So you can share your scrawl with your dog. Not many items you can say that about.

Hope you enjoy the pattern. The Gedifra worked up really nice and soft in the scrawl. The colours show p great. They are sublte not glaring like some self patterning yarns. This is a very elegant or casual garment depending on how you wear it.

I would love comments on what you think of the Scrawl. Very fun to knit.

The Scrawl is done

It is finished and I like even better than I thought I would. That is the fun of designing either you love it or hate once its done - Well this one is a Love it garment. I get an idea in my head and then as I am knitting I always have doubts if it will turn out. So it is great to have the idea become a reality and then to turn out so good. - Bonus.
I think a lot of people will like it too. You have 1 more day to submit you guess to what a SCRAWL is. Here is the contest.

I am making up a free pattern for the Web Store to go with the Gedifra Sportivo yarn. This pattern is for a " SCRAWL " Can you guess what that is. The person who guesses will get enough Sportivo yarn in their colour choice to make one. The Scrawl took 3 1/2 balls of yarn so you will win 4 balls.
To enter the contest simply e-mail your answer to me shelmack@telus.net and put contest in the subject line. If I get more than 1 right guess then I will draw the winner.
This is quite fun. I will post the Scrawl on Thursday before Noon Pacific time and will notify the winner by email on Thursday morning.

Store visitors

On Wednesday we had some visitors to the store from Scotland. They came all the way from Scotland to see the store. Well maybe they came to see Rowan. This is Liz and Sarah, Grandma and Aunt to Rowan. She is nearly 2 months now and getting bigger. Mom and I got our turns at holding her too. It was a fun visit.

I am having a lot of fun with the contest. I have had lots of entries and 2 correct ones. So the winner will be decided with a draw. If you haven't seen the contest it is in the post below this one. I will announce the winner on July 20th. I still have a fair bit of knitting to do on the Scrawl so I better get at it.

Contest

First I want to show you a picture of a cute sweater. Karen from Quadra Island was lucky enough to have a grand daughter born about 2 weeks after Meika was born. We talk lots about our Grand daughters as you can imagine. Karen knit this little sweater for her with Opal Petticoat Cotton in colour # 1336. This is the free pattern but she changed it a bit. It is sure cute. Now we need a picture of her in it.

Now on to the contest.

I am making up a free pattern for the Web Store to go with the Gedifra Sportivo yarn. This pattern is for a " SCRAWL " Can you guess what that is. The person who guesses will get enough Sportivo yarn in their colour choice to make one. Since I can't tell you what it is and it isn't finished yet. I am not sure how many balls that is. (3-4 at least) To enter the contest simply e-mail your answer to me shelmack@telus.net and put contest in the subject line. If I get more than 1 right guess then I will draw the winner. Here are a couple of pictures of the scrawl to confuse you further, help you figure out what it is. The contest will end July 20th. and I will announce the winner here. Good Luck

This is the colour I am making the Scrawl in - Sportivo 5769

New Knitting chair and Fun socks

I made some socks last night on my machine and I had to show how nice they are. This is the Online Fun Color #766. Isn't is great. The Online Fun colors are on sale this month at the Web Store and in store

Now to my new knitting chair. I got a new burgundy leather knitting chair. I love it. When it first came my husband set it up so he got to try it out. Then my Dad tried it out, Mom sat in it and a few other people and that is the extent of my sharing. Now it is just for me. I love it. I have had 2 unplanned naps in it, much needed I guess and have done lots of knitting in it. It is so comfy. The perfect knitting chair.

Want to see something cute!!

Trish from Ladybug yarns got these little baby Opal yarns in with her last order and I coldn't resist buying some. They are just sweet. I put the 100 gr ball of  Petticoat beside the 10 gr ball to show you the size. I ordered 100 balls. They make a great table decoration in my kitchen but then I thought maybe I should give them away. So that is what I am going to do. For the month of July any orders over $50 either Canadian or US in the Web Store or at eBay will get a baby Opal free. That includes orders that I got in the last few days too. Your baby Opals are on the way. Some of the colours are really neat and colours I have never seen before. This should be fun.

Flashy fingers gloves

I had to show you this. Normally I would wait until the pattern is written and show the finished garment all nice but this is a good laugh. I wanted to make a pattern for gloves with Opal Saphir, the DK weight patterned yarn by Opal and have each finger a different colour. This worked out great, (the thumb will be blue soon), so I tried the glove on and realized the middle finger is very flashy, not intentional but funny. This pattern will be available free in August on the web site along with the Saphir yarn. Maybe I am just tired but that seemed really funny.

July Sale Sock Yarn

For the month of July Online Fun Color sock yarn will be on sale. It's regular price is $11.95 Canadian/ $10.50 US and it is on sale for $10.50 Canadian / $9.25 US. This is really nice sock yarn in nice rich colours. I love the name Fun Colors, goes so well with Fun Knits

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canda Day. It is a beautiful hot and sunny day here today. Here are my Canada Day socks made with Opal Prisma. I dusted off the knitting machine and plan to knit lots of socks. I want to have lots done. We are going to hve a booth at Gibson's Fibre Festival selling sock yarn of course. That should be lots of fun.

This is what I plan to do today, sit outside at the store and knit, maybe sell some yarn too. This picture was taken on Wed at the store. We have a group of very eager young knitters here on Quadra. Mom is teaching them to knit and so far they all love it. Mom is working on her Pinwheel baby sweater. It is really going to be cute.

Here it is nearly at the edge. The sleeves will be the bright pink. I will post a finished picture. I have been extremely busy so I haven't blogged much lately.