Fun Knits BIG Moving Sale

Yes you read it right. We are having a big moving sale at the store this week. Wed.Nov 1, Thur. Nov 2 and Sat. Nov.4th,. The reality of a moving sale is I would rather sell the yarn than move it. Everything in the store will be at least 10% off. Some selected sock yarn will be 20% off and other yarns will be as much as 40% off. If you live nearby you don't want to miss this sale. This will only be an instore sale.
Hope to see you there.

New store - before shots

Here is a picture of the outside of the store at night. I will try and get a day shot.

They have started working on the New store already so I wasn't able to get any real before shots. They have the new wall studs in and the wiring. They have also cut the wall to get access to the back of the store. Such great progress. The wall with the arch doorway was solid yesterday.

This picture is from the front door looking to the back of the store. It is a long and narrow store as you can see.




This picture is from the back of the store looking toward the front door. My husband is at the front door measuring. We are starting to figure out where things should go in the store. The oak cabinets with glass tops are amazing. My Mom and Dad bought those for me. What a wonderful gift. They are going to be the center of the store and be our checkout and workstation. They will hold a lot of stuff. We hope to be open by Nov 30th.

Happy New Knitter

I love the look on a new knitters face when they finish the first real project. Dawn took the beginner knitter course in Oct and she picked a baby hat for a friend as her project. She did a great job. She made her hat with Sweatermaker hand spun, hand dyed yarn.

Meika tried on the hat to make sure it would fit a baby. If you notice in this picture she is trying to knit the cat. She is getting the connection between animal fur and fibre at a young age.( The needle wasn't close to the cat we were watching her closely.) She lost her needle about a nano second after the picture.

It has been a wonderful fall here. The leaves are all turned colour and falling. We raked and made a big pile for Meika to play in. She really likes the leaves. I have been busy thinking about the big move to the new store. I got a key for the new store space yesterday so I will get in and take pictures. It will be nice to have a before and after record.

The store we are taking is about 2200 sq ft but we are taking 1/2 of it. So they need to build a wall down the centre to divide the space into 2 stores.At the moment the store has a wall down the middle and they need to cut an opening in that for access into the other 1/2 of the store and the store room. It used to be a gift shop called Island Treasures. I remember when I first opened the yarn store here on Quadra, if I went to the Cove for anything, I always saw that store and thought what an ideal location for my yarn store, but I never dreamed I would get that location. I will take lots of pictures and share all the fun of getting the store ready and then moving into the new store.

My plan for the store is the yarn store will be in the front 1/2 of the store and a gift store will be in the back part of the store. This will be a place where we can sell our knit products and Megan's Toe Kozies. It will also be a space where my special needs son can make and sell his crafts, soap, candles and dog biscuits. We are going to set up an area in the back room for him and his intervenor to work and make things. He is becoming an adult this year and is done school in June 2007 so this will be his day job. Hope it all works out as nice as I am imagining.

Fun Knits is moving

Well it is official now, Fun Knits is moving to the Cove. Yes Quadra Island has a Mall. Not the kind of mall you have in large cities but a small funky plaza commonly called Q-Cove Plaza . Q short for Quathiaski. This is a small picture but I will try and describe where the store will be. It will be in front of where the beige car with wood panel sides is parked in this picture. If you look farther down the parking lot and see a red car. That is parked in front of the Post Office. That will be very handy for mailing all of your yarn to you. Between the Post Office and the store is the Lovin Oven an great little restaurant and then a gift store called Explore owned by one of our newest knitters Kelly. She is happy we will be so close to help her out.
The new store is going to be bigger about 500 sq ft. and has a really big back room. I am not sure what Mom and I are more excited about the new store or the back room. We really need storage space. We should be opening in the new store Dec. 1st. if all goes well.
I will miss this little store as it is so quaint but I think we can make the new store as cozy and quaint. At least I know I have enough yarn to fill the new store. I will miss the view here and how close it is to my house. This store is a 10 second walk from my house and the new store will be a 1 minute drive or 5 min walk. Still not a bad commute so I can't complain.
I will get some pictures of the progress as it occurs.
On the knitting front I have been helping Megan make Toe Kozies and getting ready for her Craft Fairs in Vancouver. She has been up here all week so we have had a lot of fun playing with Meika.

New Regia Classic and Fashion colour - Oct. Sale yarn

Here is the new Regia sock yarn - Canadian Classic - I decided to put this yarn and the Regia Canadian Fashion yarn on sale for the month of Oct. Check the Web Store for Prices. For this colour I am sold out of 4744 but have the rest of the colours. These colours are very rich. I plan to knit a few pair of these for myself.














The Regia Canadian Fashion yarn is a great seller but I thought I would put it on sale too. I am out of 4726 and gettin low already on4736, 4733 and 4735. These seem to be the most popular colours. So shop early to avoid disappointment.

It's here

This post is for everyone waiting for the Regia Canadian Fashion collection. It is here so anyone waiting for an order, I will mail it tomorrow and anyone waiting to order you better hurry. Will blog more later. I also got in the other Regia Canadian Classic collection. Wow is it nice. I will have it available at the Web Store tomorrow.

Squiggle shawl

I have had a lot of response to my shawl pattern in Magknits this month. I really liked it so I am not surprised a lot of people do. It is light as a feather once knit and is very easy to knit. The shawl kits are selling quickly so if you want one you know what to do. They are available at the Web Store. I have a few left in the Golden Rose colour. Sold out of the Rainforest for now but will get more. Judy is very busy dying yarn.

These are the kit colours available and here is the pattern

Weekend Retreat at Hollyhock

For everyone who wished they could have come with us here are some great pictures of our weekend retreat at Hollyhock on Cortez Island. On Friday afternoon we all met at the restaurant on Quadra Island and had lunch then the group came over to Fun Knits to shop before we headed off to Cortez. Here we are leaving the dock on Quadra on the ferry to Cortez.

On the way some dolphins decided to follow the boat. It was hard to get a good picture of them as they move so fast. It was nice of them to perform for us.

We arrived at Hollyhock at after a short detour to the local yarn/book store. We just couldn't drive by the yarn store without stopping. We all bought some yarn including me. I got some Briggs and Little sock yarn. I have been wanting to try it before I bought it for the store. I got 3 skeins so that should be enough for a fair trial. It was fun to shop in this little store.

We arrived at hollyhock just in time to get settled in our rooms and then have supper. We all sat around and knit and chatted getting to know one another. The next morning we settled into our workshop of designing random lace. Now you would think that would be easy just to knit random lace but I found it hard. The challenge was to chart the lace then knit it. It is very hard to place lace randonly on the chart. I always ended up in some form of order. It was a fun exercise and I learned a lot. Below is the lovely room we worked in. The house was called Bluff House and it was situated quite high with an hill with a wonderful view among the trees.

Later that day we went to the Beach house and sat on the porch and knit a lot more. This is a picture of Sue teaching Kathy to knit 2 socks on circular needles. It was interesting to watch as I have never taken the time to learn that method. Later that night we went to the Beach house again and knit and talked about everything including knitting of course. it is amazing how much talk about knitting people can do.

This is Barb coming to meet us for kntting on the porch. The geese were neat to watch and they hung around most of the time. The view was wonderful and the setting was very relaxing. I even had a nap after lunch one day. What a treat.

This was the view of the sun coming up this morning. It was really nice. I got up very early , had a shower and then took my knitting down to the living room and sat in the sun to let my hair dry while I knit. I felt like a cat sitting in the sun. It was quite nice. A great way to start the day.

After breakfast we went on an outing to a few local farms and met some of the local spinners and knitters. First we went to Joy's house and got to look at her lovely wool. Isn't this a beautiful room full of wool.
This is Jan and Joy. Jan has lovely Alpaca. It looked very soft but I am too allergic to Alpaca to touch it. I am going to be carry both Jan and Joy's yarn in the store. Jan is going to get some Suri Alpaca spun in lace weight for the store I can't wait.

This is Gail spinning some Alpaca. I really couldn't get too close as I was getting pretty itchy being in the same room with the spinning. I wish I wasn't allergic to Alpaca. I love it.

Then we went over to Ginny's place to meet her sheep. They are so lovely. They were a bit shy of us but also curious. Ginny has a lovely home on Cortez and she invited us in for tea and wonderful conversation. I really enjoyed meeting these fine people from Cortez. We are also going to carry Ginny's wool in the store. It is lovely, she has it in 3 natural colours from dark brown to beige.


After our visit we headed back to Hollyhock for lunch an then back to the workshop. I was very inspired by the lace knitting and cast on for a baby sweater with a lace sunburst on the back. I think it was inspired by all the lace and sun I enjoyed over this weekend. I will show a picture when it is done. I had to leave early and come home tonight . The others all got to stay and enjoy another evening. Tonight they were having and oyster bake on the beach. I am sure it was wonderful. What a wonderful weekend I had enjoing the company of these knitters. I hope to do that again soon.

Hello from Hollyhock

Just wanted to say a quick HI from Hollyhock. The knitting retreat is wonderful. I have learned lots and have made a bunch of new knitter friends. I will be home later today and can post pictures and blog in detail about the retreat.
In other news I have a pattern published in Magknits this month. Squiggle Shawl made with Sweatermaker yarn and modeled by my pretty daughter Megan. We have a limited number of kits available to buy at Fun Knits Store and at the Web Store. This is a very easy fun to knit shawl. It is one of those items that makes knitters and non knitters wonder - How did you do that??? The shawl has been in the store for a few months and that is the most common question asked about it. Only you will know how easy it was to knit.
Back to the retreat or should I call it knitters paradise.