A Huge Thank You

A Huge Thank you to all the wonderful people who came to the Inventory counting party yesterday. We had a great bunch of people counting. There were 10 of us all together. Everyone had a good time, got a lot of work done and won some great prizes. We ate very good Pizza when it was over. We got about 80% of the store counted. It looks like a bomb went off in the store. Yarn is everywhere. Tomorrow we will finish counting and put it all back where it belongs.
While we had all of the yarn out of the back room, my husband was busy building floor to ceiling shelves. They are wonderful and my back room will look so good now. I might even be able to find what I need when I need it now.
I will be happy to get this job finished.
I spent most of my time yesterday with Brenda and Stella helping count sock yarn. We have a lot of sock yarn. Really a lot. I also have 46 KG of Kauni. I know that thanks to Shannon.
Hopefully I will get this all done in time to reopen on Wed, Jan 2 if not please excuse the mess...

Fun, Food and Family

All the ingredients for a great Christmas - Fun. food and family. We had a great time.

First we put the Meika to work baking. She is making a pie for Grandpa here. Then we got the place all ready for Christmas. The Kauni stocking was filled with loot for Meika.

Christmas morning everyone got lots of presents and the kids all had fun. Then amongst the Christmas mess Meika painted a picture for me.

Mom made Megan a cute sweater for Christmas. It was the one on the cover of Cast on Magazine for fall. She loved it so mom knit it for her with Eco knits cotton. She loves it and it looks great on her.

I gave mom a Kauni felted hat and a 1/4 finished cashmere scarf. She loved both. The scarf will be done soon.

My son got his hat still on the needles too but I finished it during the day. Meika's sweater also got finished during the day and she wore it home on Boxing day.

It turned out really cute. Both the hat for my son and the sweater for Meika are my handspun so I am very happy with both of them

Day 1 of my SALE

Today was great and lots of sock yarn and novelty yarn found new homes. I have sooo much yarn it is amazing. To think I started this a few years ago with a few extra balls of yarn and sold them on eBay. I guess you could say my yarn passion got out of hand. Well I wouldn't have it any other way. The store is fun, I have met lots of great people and introduced a lot of people to knitting and a few to spinning.
Anyways the reason for my post. I still have tons (literally) of yarn to sell. If you can't come in give me a call 1-250-285-2751 10 am - 5pm or email me shelmack@telus.net with your order and I will call you.
The Sock yarn that is 40% off is Gedifra, Opal Element, Prisma and Rodeo, Regia Loop the rest is 25% off.

HUGE Clearance Sale

Fun Knits is having a HUGE Clearance sale Dec. 20, 21 and 22. This is to reduce our stock before inventory. So come on in and do your part. Stock up on yarn. Send in your friends/ partners to buy you presents!!!

Everything in the store will be 10% off
All sock yarn and novelty will be 25% off. Some of the sock yarns and novelty yarns will be up to 40% off.

Or else come in and buy yourself a nice Christmas present. Yarn, books, needles.

I will be taking phone orders from out of town shoppers 10 am - 5 pm Pacific time. 1-250-285-2751 or email me your order and phone # and I will call you.

Inventory Counting Party

Fun Knits will be closed Dec 23 - Jan 2. We will be counting Inventory. I decided we will have an inventory counting party on Saturday Dec 29th from Noon - 6pm. This will be quite funand very helpful for me. We will have prizes to give out every hour (some of them are huge) and after we are done counting I will treat you all to Pizza at the Lovin Oven.
Let me know if you want to come and play with yarn I mean count yarn, I will put your name down.

As for counting inventory - its not that bad. I just give you a list and point you to where to count. Knitter's are pretty good at counting.

Fun Knits Spring Knitting Retreat

Fun Knits Spring Knitting Retreat is now ready to take registrations. This retreat is going to be great. We have 5 different workshops to take. Go to the Website and read all about them. From all the interest at the last retreat I think this one will fill up quickly so don't be disappointed and register soon.
Since it is Christmas and we are all broke I will take a $100 deposit to hold your place and your workshop of choice. Final payment is due before March 1, 2008.
The deposits can only be taken over the phone 1-250-285-2751 during store hours Tues - Sat 10am - 5pm Pacific time. 0r buy paying with paypal to shelmack@telus.net and please include all your details.
I can't do the deposit on the web page. Believe me I had enough trouble making the Internet registration page work without trying to attempt that too.
This would make a great Christmas present for yourself!!!

The store looks Christmasy

We have 2 trees in the store and they are both decorated with all knit items. The window is decorated with our knitting Santa and some nice knitted items. The counter is decorated with some great new hand dyed yarn waiting for labels. It even looks like Christmas.

I play Christmas music all day so I am sure in the Christmas spirit this year.

Felted Kauni Hat

I just finished another hat in EQ. I like it even better than the first one.

Here is my new free pattern on the web site for Kauni yarn left overs. The hat only takes 50 gr each of 2 colours of yarn. I have knit this with EM and EZ held together.

It was so huge when I was done knitting it that it covered my entire face. Once I felted it the hat fits great. You can't even imagine how soft and fluffy this yarn gets when it is felted. I am making another one now out of EQ. I started it with purple and red and both colours will change so it shoul;d make an interesting effect.

Weather !!!! and Spinning

Look what we are in for today. We usually get a wind warning or a rainfall warning but today we are getting a snow, rain and wind warning. I am not going out the door. A very good day to stay in and knit. This has been the worst weather weekend. First we got about 60 cm of snow, now it has just started freezing rain on top of that and I can't wait until the winds hit. The trees will snap like twigs with all the ice and snow on them.

I have taken up spinning and I just love it. I have improved in the last few month going from chunky novelty yarn to yarn I can actually knit with. I am making a sweater for Meika for Christmas. The fleece is Northern Lights by Louet. It is merino wool and is dyed with in very short repeats so when you spin it, the yarn gets tweedy. I love it. It is wonderful fibre you can spin it right out of the bag. I have ordered some more and will carry this fibre in the store and online soon.

I am knitting the Essential Baby Cardigan by Lisa Henderson. As you can see I have taken a few liberties with the pattern. I wanted a pullover as Meika has a lot of cardigans and I wanted cables as a design at the raglan shaping. The picture doesn't show the cables very well but the show up nicely.

This is quite a nice pattern. It is written for 3 weights of yarn and size newborn to 3 years old. I already knit this pattern out of Noro for a friend's baby and the sweater turned out great.

I love knitting with this hand spun. It's almost like I know the yarn since I have spent so much time with it, spinning it then plying it.

I just wish I had more time.

Wow just as I was writing this post the snow plow came by. We might even be able to drive our van home today. It has been stuck at the store since Saturday.

We are Closed today

Sorry - Today the shop is closed. There are about 6 reasons why I can't open the shop today and 4 of them are due to the SNOW. We have about 3" on the ground and lots more to come.

Yesterday's sale went great. I heard from lots of internet people - fun to talk to customer's from far away on the phone. The in store sale went great too and the sock yarn supply is somewhat depleted. I think a lot of people are getting socks this Christmas.

The store looks very Christmasy. Mom and Dad came over for the evening and we ate Pizza and drank tea. It was lovely.
I guess I have time to knit today. I am knitting about 5 projects. 3 socks, 1 lace scarf, 1 top down sweater for Meika knit with my handspun yarn. What shall I work on first...... off to knit

Sock Yarn Sale - Christmas in the Cove

Fun Knits is having a Sock yarn sale all day tomorrow.

All sock yarn will be 15% off. Since lots of our shoppers don't live close enough to come to our sale we are offering this sale to everyone.
You can take advantage of this sale 3 ways
1 - Come to the store - I'd love to see you - we will have goodies and I am giving out a neat little Christmas ornament kit.
2 - phone order 250-285-2751 - Pacific time - We are open 10 am - 9 pm tomorrow. Please check out the web site and have your order written out when you phone. We take Matsercard and Visa over the phone.
3 - internet orders - same as usual but - I will refund your paypal account 15%

Maybe you are asking yourself - Why am I having a sale

Two reasons - We have been in the new store for 1 year now. Also tomorrow is Christmas in the Cove. Every year on Quadra Island we have Christmas in the Cove. On our nice quiet little Island everything closes here about 5pm, the grocery store is open until 9pm but not many people veture out at night. Christmas in the Cove is different - Everyone comes out. It is a lot of fun.
See you then. Pray we don't get snow - Look at last year

Kauni Christmas Stocking

Wow 2 posts in one day.

Here is the pattern for the Kauni Christmas Stocking. It is a $4.00 download available here

It knits up very quickly - Good thing since we only have 1 month left until Christmas.

The bad news is I am out of EK(green) More coming soon. I have a few yarn knits available to knit this stocking. If you want one email me at

shelmack@telus.net

This stocking can be knit with just EQ and pick your colours. it takes only 55 grams of the red(EM) and 50 grams of the EK(green).

I plan on making my next on with EQ so I will keep you posted.

Catching up

This post will catch us up to the current. Lots has been going on so much I am too busy to blog..

Mom had a great birthday and thanks to all who came by and left comments. She had a great time. Yes that was Mom in the store last Wed. She came out of retirement to work last Wed. I am sure she will still be around. In this picture she is holding her nearly finished socks. I did finish them by the end of her birthday - ends sewn in and everything. We had a good time.
Now I am going way back to the Craft show at Abbotsford. I had these pictures and forgot to share them with you. They are so cute. We had a table set up with knitting needles on it so people could sit and make a little Christmas ornament. When Meika came of course she wanted to knit so she grabbed some needles and her Mom's name tag and started knitting it. So cute.

Once she got running around with the needles she lost them but she sat for about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to cast on with the name tag. Very cute.

Onto my next new passion. I have been spinning a lot and I am improving. My first stuff was too embarassing to show pictures of. It was certainly novelty yarn. I am spinning this lovely merino from Louet called Northern lights in Grape Jelly colour. It is sooooooooo nice to spin. I plan to make Meika a sweater for Christmas so I better get busy. I have 1 skein spun, plied and ready and I figure I will need 3. I will keep you posted on how this goes.

The last picture is Sweetie wearing a newborn hat I made ( yes I washed it before I gave it to the baby). Sweetie is the abondoned cat we got a while ago. He certainly is fine now. He actually loved wearing the hat. I may make him one for Christmas but a little smaller. He still won't go outside unless someone takes him outside so he doesn't have much need for a nice noro hat.

Happy Birthday and Happy Retirement Mom!!!

*****Happy Birthday Mom ******

Today is my Mom's 75th birthday. I am not sure she will be impressed that the entire knitting world know her age but I think she needs to be recognized for it and should be proud of it.
My Mom had work tirelessly with me at Fun Knits from the beginning of the store. She has put in many hours of hard work and made lots of sales. She mentioned that she is getting tired of working and would work until Christmas. Well I decided her 75th birthday was a good day to retire. Not bad most people retire at 65. Now Mom can come and hang out at the store and knit.
We are having an all day party at the store with cake and balloons. She has worked on Wed. since the store started and I am sure everyone will miss her.
I knit Mom a shawl with Noro Silk garden and am working on her 2nd sock. I am at the toe on her Warm and Fuzzy socks. We have a tradition in our family that gifts still on the needles are still gifts. Pictures will come later.
So for all you readers in blogland please join us today and wish Mom a Happy Birthday and Retirement. Any locals - come in and wish her Happy Birthday. We have great cake, snacks - lights, heat and hot tea (we have power at the store).
We had a huge storm here on the weekend and most people are still without power. hmm - I guess the ones without power won't get this today. Oh well leave belated greetings.

Sweatermaker Sock yarn

Yesterday I went to see Judy Maclean aka -Sweatermaker Yarns - , she had just finished dying some great sock yarn so once again I brought some home wet. I love the smell of drying yarn. This should be dry and ready to go to new homes this weekend. if you love it and want some let me know. I am going to Abbotsford next week to the BC's Creative Expo. This yarn is coming with me and I am sure it won't come back. Shan I have a fairly good match for your shawl and Coral here are the sock colours take your pick. I was also able to match up and get more of the mohair lace weight - just can't remember who that is for so if you read this drop by the store. I have your yarn.

I had a great visit with Judy. I left her with all kinds of yarn to dye for us. I will post it when I pick it up in a few weeks. We also talked about her workshop she will be doing at the next knitting Retreat. It sounds really good. I am just in the process of getting a few things organized and I will have the Spring knitting retreat registrations starting mid Dec. - So mark your calendar and don't make any plans (except you Lisa - you can have the baby) April 4-6, 2008

Fun Knits Fall Knitting Retreat

Where do I begin - At the beginning I guess.

People started arriving about 3 pm on Friday as they arrived they were given tooth picks and a small ball of Hempathy yarn (just in case they forgot their knitting) They were asked to knit something using only the tooth picks and to show it on Sunday.

We had a nice Salmon buffet supper and then introductions. Then some of us went to the Yarn shop. Lots of yarn found new homes this weekend.

Sat Morning we went to the conference room and shared out ideas for some Christmas knitting.

Mom showed how to make her crochet top towels. Carol showed how to make socks with Briggs and Little Tuffy. Our little snowman is knitting his own scarf. We had a knitting snowman for everyone to assemble. Kathy was showing how to make end-to -end scarves and had a sample bracelet people could knit. Lynn came with her yarn to sell and her little sock ornament to make.

I had a Waffle weave washcloth made with Hempathy or cotton and a mitered Christmas ormnament to knit. Also a hat and leg warmers made of Bravo crazy colour.

Megan had her Toe Kozies and kits - they were a big hit.
There was lots of sitting around knitting. This year Roger let his wife Rachel come. She spins yarn for Roger to knit but she has also taken up knitting. They had lots of fun.










We ate, ate, ate all weekend. Plenty of food and it was all great. On Sat night we had Prime Rib buffet. After the dinner we were entertained by Hal Douglas and Friend's band. They were just wonderful. It was great to sit and knit to a live band. This was quite a treat. I think we were a different crowd than they are used to.
We played with yarn a lot. We had a couple of circle knits. We got 8 people together and all knit in a large circle on the same item using circular needles. Then when finished we all put our name tags in a bag and drew who the winner was. Penny won the first one and Jackie won the second one. These circle knits are quite fun.


Sunday morning we had a show and tell. Lots of wonderful garments. I couldn't get my camera to work right so I didn't get many pictures of this.










Remember the little balls of yarn and tooth picks I told you about. Well here is some of the finished items. These knitters are very talented and such good sports. Our final picture is the entire group of knitters at the Fall retreat. I will send you all a copy of this picture later this week once I get unpacked and the store back in shape.
Thanks to everyone who came and made the Retreat such a fun success.

Well that was fun!!

The retreat is over and everyone seemed to have a great time, including me, I even got to sit around and knit a few times at this retreat. . I am too tired to go and get my camera and download the pictures so you have to wait until tomorrow to see the pictures.
Actually I am too tired to blog - tomorrow I will tell you all about it

Busy, busy, busy etc...... Oh also a SALE!!!

I am so busy getting ready for the retreat. We are also having a huge in store sale at Fun Knits this weekend. There is a private sale for the retreat goers on Friday night and Sat from 1 - 5 in store sale. Notice Sat hours. We are closing in the morning so everyone can enjoy the morning activities of the retreat and lunch.
There are 38 people coming to the retreat. It is going to be a lot of fun. Can't wait.
Now back to the sale. Everything in the store will be 10% off except books and patterns. Lots of the sock yarn will be further reduced and novelty yarn will be slashed. I am also clearing out of a few of the yarns in store and they will be greatly reduced. So you don't want to miss this sale. It is just in time for gettting ready for Christmas.

Great Weekend

I had a wonderful weekend. Here is how it went. Friday we drove to Judy and Ihor's house and got settled into their guest house. It was wonderful. They live on beautiful place right on a lake. The weather was perfect all weekend. We just visited on Friday night.

Saturday Judy and I got out the spinning wheels. It was so beautiful we sat out on the deck to spin. I finished spinning my very thick and thin beginner yarn. It was awful but I will keep it anyways. Then Judy rowed me around their lake. What a treat.

Saturday we had a fun party. It was a pot luck dinner and the food was great. I got to visit with lots of old friends and meet some new ones. Here is a picture of Raven with her hand spun Navajo plied yarn that she is knitting a scarf with. She is a very new spinner and this yarn was perfect. Wow I was impressed. We played a fun knitting game. We all sat in a circle and 9 of us knit on the same huge round garment. And here is Judy wearing the finished product. She is going to use it as a Christmas garland on her tree. This was a lot of fun to knit and we made a great video of our fun. I am hoping to put this onto Youtube so you can all see our fun. Have to figure out how first.

On Sunday I spun all day and actually produced yarn I was proud of. I will show a picture when I get one taken. We then went out for dinner. All weekend we had a great time. Thanks Judy and Ihor for a wonderful weekend.

Off on another knitting/ weaving/ spinning adventure

Sometimes when things don't work out something better happens. This is the case this weekend. The retreat I was planning on going to this weekend was cancelled but my friend has invited me to her house for a fun fibery weekend. So I am off in a different direction to have fun retreat of a different kind. Lucky me. I am taking my loom, my spinning wheel and my knitting. Fun, fun, fun.
Plans for our retreat are coming along nicely. We still have a few spaces left if anyone want to come. It is close to full.

What fun I had

I really enjoyed my stay on Salt Spring Island. The first night we just relaxed and did nothing. Rare for me. The next day we went shopping out for lunch and then went to visit Mary Tanti.(The designer of the new Kauni Jacket) She made us a great dinner then we got down to business and she helped me finish the Kauni. Cardigan. Yes I said FINISH. She showed me a great cast off that just completed the sweater so nicely. I ended up staying up unitl 2 am to get this sweater finished so I could wear it the next day.

The next day we set up to sell yarn, Not until noon so I did get to sleep late. After the yarn sales flurry I sat around and chatted with Lucy Neatby. She showed about 10 different techniques in about that many minutes. Wow is she ever an amazing knitter. Lucy loves the kauni and we traded kauni for DVD's and patterns. She had all kinds of ideas for the Kauni yarn and I can't wait to see them.

That night Mary had a few people over for dinner, Lucy Neatby and her assistant Susan, Elna ( she wrote Cottage Knits, More Cottage knits and One More Row for Briggs and Little) and my Husband and I. it was really fun to relax and visit with such wonderful talented knitters. of course we talked about knitting - knitting and more knitting.

Thursday we went to Jane Stafford's studio. we had a great visit and what a nice studio she has. I bought some wonderful cotton to weave some towels and left her with some Kauni EQ and EM to weave

So that is how the last few days went. I feel blessed and humbled to have been with these wonderful talented people. I learned so much and the biggest thing I learned was that I have so much learn about knitting.

The pictures are in order of event.

And you may wonder what my husband thought of all this knitting and fibre fun. Well he enjoyed lots of time to play his guitar. He is a clasical guitarist so he travels with his own amusement when times get boring.

Knitter's night

Better late than never for posting about fun stuff.

These are the pictures from our 1st knitter's night of the season. We met 2 Thursday's ago. Look at all that nice knitting and all the nice hand knit socks on people's feet. Marni has her kauni nearly done and it looks great. She did hers in EG and EK. Great combination.

My Kauni is on the table. I have actually been working on it this weekend and have the sleeves done. Now I m deciding on what to do with the button band. I am definitely going to steek it and knit it in the round. I am still deciding on my design for the buttonband. I don't want buttons but I want the clasp closures instead. I will show pictures of it once I am done.

Tomorrow I am heading off the Salt Spring Island for a few day. Be back on Thursday. If I am slow answering emails that is why. I'm gone. I will be busy hanging out with great knitter's and designers. WOW what fun.