1 down 4 to go

One craft show down and 4 to go. These shows are a lot of work to set up and tear down but so worth it. I get to meet so many knitters and see lots of old friends. What a great job I have hanging out with knitters all day who love yarn as much as I do. My Mom and Dad helped me so much this weekend. Mom helped me sell yarn and Dad talked to the bored husbands. We had a good time.

I taught my course and it went OK. I could have used a lot more time but I gave a crash course in Fair Isle, Cables and Intarsia in 45 minutes. Seemed like everybody got something out of the course. At least they went home with a bunch of free patterns to try the methods. Not much time to actually knit.

Brenda stopped by my booth and was wearing her new cardigan she made with Malabrigo. It is really nice. You can read about it here.

My next show is in Victoria this weekend at the Victoria Conference Centre. I will be in Booth #70. I will have a sign on my booth so I should be easy to find - I will be the booth with the very colourful sock yarn. The booth is open 9 am - 6 pm March 2 -3. Hope to see lots of Victoria friends and knitters. If you are coming to the show and have any special yarn requests email me at shelmack@telus.net

Here is a list of the next shows we are in

May 11-12, 2007 - FibrefestInternational at the Tradex in Abbotsford BC.

This one is going to be great. I am looking forward to seeing lots of old friends and of course making new ones.

June 8-11, 2007 - Victoria Fibrefest - We are sponsoring this event and you will see our name Fun Knits everywhere in connection with this event.

Friday night June 8th - Fashion show sponsored by the Victoria Knitters Guild

Sat. June 9th will be classes and a Yarn Crawl to all the local shops. I will be teaching a beginner sock knitting class from 1-4 on Sat.

In the evening Beehive Yarn Shop in Victoria is sponsoring the Yarn Harlot. Stephanie will be speaking and signing books. I am looking forward to meeting her. I have never heard her speak so this will be fun.

Sun. June 10th will be the Knit Out at Saxe Point Park in Esquilmalt 10 am - 4 pm. I will have the Fun Knits Tent full of sock yarn again this year. Pray for Sun!!!!!!

August 15-18 - Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival - I will have a booth in the Merchant Mall again this year. Last year was a lot of fun so I am sure it will be great again this year.

Then we are taking a holiday. I think we will need one by then.

The Fashion Show

Here are some pictures from the first day of the North Island Sewing & Needle Arts Show. The first picture is our van full of sock yarn. We had only 2 hours to set up before the doors opened so we packed the yarn in the bins. It was really a nice way to set up and I think we will do this everytime we have a show.
The next 3 pictures are our set up. Pretty good for 2 hours I think.

















This picture is Megan's Toe Kozies and some cute knit dolls that we sell.






Now on to the fashion show. Meika and Megan both wore their Pinwheel sweaters and then Megan wore the Squiggle Web Shawl. They both looked great. Meika stole the show off course. She came out looking very cute and walked down the runway holding hands with Megan, everyone clapped as they were going back and Meika went down the runway again ( not part of the plan) so everyone could get a better look. It was quite cute. It was a good day and we are exhausted. Tomorrow will be busy.

New Yarn

Today I went to Judy Macleans in Courtenay and picked up the new colours of Floral Spectrum sock yarn. Wow they are nice. These pictures don't do the yarn justice and I will take proper pictures tomorrow in the daylight and I will post them in the Web Store tomorrow night. I also got a picture of my new pair of socks. I knit one sock with Mulberry Bush and the other with Red Rose. I will get the second socks knit soon. ( I hope) You can't even imagine the number of socks I have around here without mates. I have a bad case of Second Sock Syndrome. There must be a support group somewhere for people like me. I think I am just going to start wearing my many unmatched socks. Maybe I will start a new fad.



I also got in some New Regia Cotton Java yarn today. It is really nice. Great for Spring and summer socks. I have it listed on the Web Store to buy already. I really love the green colour - # 1184 and the multi - # 1188. They are my favourites maybe I will knit 1 sock of each colour.
Mary - I am coming to Victoria March 2-3 for the Sewing and Crafts Show at the Conference centre. I am going to be in booth # 7o I am bringing tons of sock yarn to sell. Hope you can make it.
Rhonda - I will bring lots of Shawl kits to Fibre fest in May. See you there.

Whats coming up??

Lots. I am going to be very busy for the next 2 weeks. I am going to be in the North Island Sewing and Needle Arts show in Campbell River this weekend Feb 23-24. I will have a merchant booth and I am bringing lots of great yarn. The booth wil be open 2 -5pm on Friday and 10 - 5pm on Sat. On Friday evening they are having a Fashion show. Megan and Meika are goign to be in this. They are going to model the Pinwheel Sweaters and Megan will model the Squiggle web shawl.
I am going to see Judy Maclean today and get more sock yarn. She has a few new colours dyed for us. I will bring lots of her yarn to the show.
Next week I and the yarn will be in Victoria - stay tuned for more details on that

Floral Spectrum Socks

This is the first sock of Fun Knits brand new sock yarn - Floral Spectrum Socks -
This is the nicest sock yarn I have ever knit with. It is just as nice as Lorna's Laces in my opinion. I would call this the Malibrigo of sock yarn. I knit all day yesterday and got the heel turned on my new sock. I am in need of new socks so these are for me. I am going to knit a pair in the Red Rose next. The Mulberry Bush colour wasn't my favourite when I first saw the yarn but I was curious how it would look knit up. Well now I love it. They look like Spring.
The new sock yarn is at the Web Store and ready to go. Judy is already dying a new batch of this yarn as we don't think this will last too long. I may just knit it all.
You may notice I am hand knitting the socks too. I have rules for sock knitting. I can't machine knit beautiful yarn. It is a waste of the pure knitting pleasure.
So back to pure knitting pleasure. I am going to cast on Red Rose next, then the Sweet Pea and of course the Calendula. By then we should have new colours too.

Beautiiful new yarn

Here is a look at the new yarn I got last night. It was still a bit damp from being dyed so I have it hanging over the ironing board drying. The colours are amazing. This is the beginning of a new sock yarn from Fun Knits. It is dyed for us by Judy Maclean of Sweatermaker yarns. She is amazing at combining colours

This new sock yarn is called Floral Spectrum Socks - 75% superwash wool, 25% Nylon - 420 m /100gr skein. It costs $21.50 Canadian and $18.95 US.

This is the softest sock yarn I have knit with. It feels a lot like Lorna's Laces. I am really happy with this yarn. Today I am getting it labelled and priced. Tomorrow it will be available to buy at the Web Store.

The colours I have are

Mulberry Bush - greens /purples/blues

Sweet Pea - pinks/ white/ blues/ green/purples

Red Rose - reds and pinks

and Calendula - yellows / golds/ brown/ olive

More flowery colours will be added within the next few months. If you have any flowers you love and can suggest colours let me know and we will work on getting them for you. This is so much fun.!!!

Week in review

This has been a busy week at Fun Knits. Lots of people are registered for the Spring Knitting retreat. But there is still room for more. You need to be registered but March 15th. There are still a few semi private rooms available too but hurry if you want those.

I had my first auction on EBay since I moved to the new store and now I will have weekly auctions again for those interested.

I list a lot of new yarn on the Web Store. I have these great Sock Kits in stock. They are in 8 great colours, teal, brown, rust, red, navy, lime (shown), purple, and burgundy. Look at the Web Store to see all the colours. They are a great beginner set. Enough yarn to make 2 pair of socks 2 - 50 gr solid and 2- 50 gr matching patterned yarn plus 2.5mm double pointed needles and a pattern. for sock in any size. The sets are $22.95 Canadian or $19.95 US. A good price for 2 pair of socks even if you don't need the needles. The yarn is regular sock yarn 75% wool 25% nylon and very nice and soft.
I also list the new Opal yarns - Feelings (pictures on web site)



Opal Smoke - 8 colours that men can wear and women too

Opal Rainbow - one yarn every colour of the Rainbow

Opal Pop up - collection of 5 great colours for spring

and the long awaited Opal Rainforest 2 - Wow these are great -

So if you need new spring yarns check these out at my Web Store