Basket of Sweatermaker

In my last post I mentioned Megan and I went to Courtenay to visit Judy McLean and buy some more sweatermaker yarn. Well here is my basket full of sweatermaker bulky yarn. I love the array of colours so I thought I would share it with you. Megan and Meika went home yesterday and it is so quiet around here. I have been singing Ba ba black sheep to Meika and she loves it and the song is stuck in my head. It is am appropriate song for me to sing except we change it to 300 bags full instead of 3 bags full of wool. 

Here is a picture of Marnie wearing a sweater made with Sweatermaker yarn, looks great on her and holding her latest finished project. This is a baby sweater she made with Bravo Crazy colour. It is very cute. It is this Bernat pattern. I made this pattern with the Opal 6ply for Meika and it turned out perfect. 

Here is the close up. She made the buttons on Christmas eve out of Fimo. I think they look great. I love the colour. Great job Marnie.

Meet Dianna, she is our newest knitter. She lives in Northern California but lives part time on Quadra Island. She live 2 doors from the yarn shop and decided to learn to knit just before Christmas. She wanted to knit some scarves for presents. She learned that quickly and she is modelling her nearly finished scarf. She has finished several since she learned to knit. She also wants to knit socks, so we took a few minutes on Wed night and she learned how to purl and how to knit on double pointed needles. She went home yesterday so I hope she can find a knitter to help her with the heel.


I posted the Opal Dreamcatcher and the Opal Rainforest in the Fun Knits EBay Store so if you want it they are listed under Opal yarns. The Dreamcatcher colours are great. I can see a few pair of those in my future.

How cute is this

Megan and I made Meika a new outfit and she is trying it on . The hat and Toe Kozies are made with Sweatermaker yarn and trimmed with pink Baby Monkey and the scarf is made with Baby monkey. She hates the hat but loves the scarf. She is so quick getting the hat off we had to be very quick getting the picture.

I love bare baby pictures so Meika happily posed for a few.

We put clothes on her to take her out in her new outfit.

On the knitting front we made a trip to Courtenay today and bought some more Sweatermaker yarn for the store. I love her yarn. I love the way she spins the colours together. 

Also this week I am getting a new shipment of Opal Rainforest and the new Dreamcatcher. I have list the Rainforest Collection again as a buy it now item. I will list the Dreamcatcher later in the week.

Highlights of 2005

Well I sure had a great year. Looking back it was probably one of my best years. My special needs boy was very healthy ( I can say that now that the year is over and not jinx him). He learned to walk with help and made great progress. He was only in hospital twice ( a record I think) so lets hope 2006 is at least that good.

I had 2 huge highlights in my life this year. Jan. 15th I opened Fun Knits Yarn Shop. This has been very fun. I just finished doing inventory and I still think the store is fun so that is a good sign. Things I have learned in my first year of business.

Always do the paper work right away, I am a hopeless yarn addict ( worse than I originally thought), I am in good company. There are a lot of yarn addicts out there and they are all great people and last but not least there is always room in a 300 sq. foot store for more yarn. I don't have any yarn hanging from the ceiling yet.

Some of my favourite times at the store -getting in new yarn and  knitting outside on nice summer days with Mom and some friends, knitting inside on rainy days with more friends.

I want to thank my Mom and Dad for all of the help and hard work. From unpacking a zillion boxes to ticketing and stocking the shelves when we were getting ready to open, to counting the inventory with me a year later. My Mom works every Wed in the store and while my Mom does the store my Dad works in my yard, he loves to garden and he keeps my yard looking great. They are a huge help and thank you doesn't seem adequate.

I want to thank all my great customers both  in store and eBay - without you I wouldn't have a yarn store. I have made some great knitting friends this year.

The next highlight of my year was June 14th - the birth of my first Grandchild, Meika Layne Shaflik. Well words just can't describe how special she is. After 24 hours of hard labour Meika was born. I was there to hold her right away. It was very rough to see my daughter in labour but very worth being there. We stayed in Vancouver for a few days after she was born to help out and that was great. Since her birth I have had lots of time with her. Megan has come to visit lots and thanks to Instant messenger I see her nearly everyday when she isn't visiting. I have had a lot of fun knitting for Meika, this is my favourite sweater I made her. It is made with Noro Silk Garden out of one of the Noro books. It will fit her a while. I have lots of other knitting plans for her. I have a Baby Bravo sweater in the works that I need to finish soon so it isn't too small before I get it done.

Another higlight of this year was the exclusive colours that Lorna's Laces made for the store. I love both the colours. The Blue one is called Quadra Island  and the brown on is called Fun Knits. I love Lorna's Laces yarn. It is such amazing quality.

As for my knitting I have a lot of projects on the go as always. The most fun one right now is the Twisted Float Shrug that I am knitting for someone. It is really nice and I hope to get it done in a week or 2. I will post a finished picture. It isn't easy to photograph on the needles as it is so bunched up.

I have the Batik shawl 90% done and should get it done soon too. The Baby Bravo sweater is 1/2 done. I got a lot of knitting done but mostly for customers, Meika and lots of store samples.

My hopes for 2006 are to have a happy healthy New year for all my family and friends and lots of great knitting projects finished.

Had a wonderful Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. All of the relatives came (not all at the same time). We went to church, we opened presents all day, had a wonderful turkey dinner and more goodies than I would ever admit to. It was wonderful. One of the best parts of the day is I held and played with Meika all day. She didn't want to get passed around too much. She was picky who held her. She came to me and her other Nana, Mom and Dad and my sister, she had a wonderful nap on the couch with my husband. Once the big crowd of relatives came in the evening she only want me or her Mom and Dad, so I got her all evening. She had a great bath in the kitchen sink with about 12 people all enjoying how cute she was, She got new rubber duckies and we all swear she said duck and bath. She splashed up the whole kitchen counter and the floor.
You should see the mess of my house today. It is totalled (except for the few square feet that came clean with Meiks's bath). The house looks like a very fun family of 30* decended on it. They are all sleeping and it is peaceful in here right now. I think I will go and knit. We can tackle the mess when they all get up.
I will post some pictures when I find the camera.
Merry Christmas to all who read this -1 day late.

Christmas Countdown

All of our presents are bought and some wrapped. That will be one of todays jobs. I have all 12 of the little hats done. I hope to get a picture of the children wearing them and when I do I will post it. I have only 2 scarves left to knit. This will be easy as they are on big needles. I saved the best scarf for the last. It is going to made with Colinette Isis and Giotto. I did that on purpose because I am really sick of knitting hats and scarves. If I have time I will make a few pair of socks on my machine tonight (but I doubt it)
I have done no baking, the tree is only half decorated. All of our visitors are arriving tomorrow (yikes when I put that into words it becomes a reality) I am not ready. For Christmas we are having my daughter, her husband and of course Meika. My son and his wife and Meika's other Grandma and Grandpa.
My Mom and Dad, sister, brother and his family will all come over Christmas day (Yes I have a large house) We decided that since it was Meika's first Christmas and no one wanted to miss that we would all get together. Then there is my husbands side of the family who will all come at some time during the day. They all live on Quadra, in total they are 14, plus 7 other guest visiting. So the total visitors we are expecting is 34. Do you think that sounds fun, Well I sure do.

We have lots of food, lots of gifts and lots of love to share, so who cares if there is no home baking or socks for everyone.

Yes I am still here

For anyone who reads this blog when I disappear for a few days I am either on holidays (not Likely) or in hospital with my special needs son. It was the latter. I took him in very early Friday morning and he was admitted. He had pneumonia. That isn't something he normally gets. He was quite sick. He had a few days of IV antibiotics and now we are home. He is a lot better and now we can get ready for Christmas.
I got a fair bit of knitting done in the hospital. I got 4 scarves knit and I am on hat #12. I haven't got any socks knit and I think I will just forget that. They can come after Christmas. Yesterday I had to catch up on my sleep (you don't get much while in Hospital) and today I have to clean my house and wrap presents. I would rather knit. I have the store this afternoon so maybe I can finish the hats tonight.
You would think I would get a lot of knitting done while I am at the store but I am lucky to get 2-3 rows knit ever. It is busy usually and I am glad for that.
I have 2 scarves left to knit but they will be quick.
Tomorrow we are going to Naniamo to last minute Christmas shop. I will get lots of knitting done on the trip too. I am looking forward to that.

Yes today is my Birthday

Thanks Brenda for the nice birthday greeting. I had a very nice birthday. I talked to all of my family, had happy birthday sang 5 times and my husband made me my favourite dinner and he made me a sugar free chocolate cake from scratch (now that is true love)

I had a great day at the store tonight. I had a few minutes of panic as I couldn't find my knitting anywhere. I put it down when a customer came in and when she left I couldn't find it anywhere. It is one of the Christmas hats for the kids. I have 6 done and need to do 6 more so it is my main knitting these days. So loosing one wasn't an option.. I laughed when I found it nicely nestled in with the scarf yarn in a big bin. See why it was hard to find.


Do you remember Deb, she is one of the beginner knitters   (actually I think she is closer to pro now), She started a few weeks ago and she has definately caught the knitting bug.She is wearing her first knit item, her chunky knit vest. She followed the pattern sort of and then added some of her own touches. She has also knit 4 scarves, 3 hats and has started another vest in Mango moon and Pash mohair. It is amazing. I put a close up of that below. It is so soft and the colours so rich. Good going Deb. I am sure we will see lts more of her knitting.

Mango Moon vest

I am knitting like crazy when I can keep track of my knitting. I also knit 2 more scarves this week as presents. So I have 6 hats to go, 3 more scarves, another slipper, 1 baby sweater and 12 pair of socks to knit before Christmas. What do you think my chance of pulling that off are. Off to knit

Busy Weekend

I did the same thing as Brenda. had a nice post written about our fun day and I lost it. I think we are jinxed. Anyways here I go again.
I had a really busy weekend, yesterday was our Fun Knits Christmas Craft Sale. It was great and we sold lots. We decorated the house and had the crafts all out but I didn't get a picture. Way too busy. In the store we had a yarn sale so the store was busy too. Brenda came over and in between busy times we sat and knit, chatting listening to Christmas music. The store has a very relaxed atmosphere, its little, cosy and full of great yarn. My Sister, Judy and my Mom ran the Craft sale and when it wasn't busy Judy came over and enjoyed all the novelty yarns. She loves making fancy scarves.
I have been working on a lot of projects. The Twisted Float Shrug is up past the armholes. It is a wonderful sweater and once it is done I will post a picture. It is all bunched up on the needles so I couldn't get a good picture. I love Lorna's Laces yarn. It is the nicest yarn to knit with. After Christmas I am going to design a sweater with Lorna's Laces worsted in the Quadra Island colour. I have a few ideas. First thing in the New Year I will order the yarn so if anyone wants anything ordered from Lorna's Laces, let me know by email shelmack@telus.net
I am working on lots of Christmas knitting. My machine knitting is on hold for a few days as I broke a part on my machine and had to order another one. I literally wore it out.
I have an order for 12 hats for a bunch of home schooled kids on Quadra. They are all matching made with Carioca in red with a green stripe.
They are very soft and nice. I will try and get a picture of the group of kids wearing them to post.

Very relaxed knitting

This morning was great. I woke up to snow and so I took the cat's lead and decided to relax for a while, watch the snow, TV, the fire and knit. So here is a glimpse at my relaxed knitting morning. I would have love to do this all day today but duty calls.

I am working on the Vogue Twisted float shrug. I tore it our and started it again today as I didn't like the look of my middle. This one looks better. It is really fun to knit and I LOVE knitting with Lorna's Laces. It is the nicest yarn. I have a lot more done since  took this picture.

Here is myrelaxed morning view. A good movie to knit to, a nice warm fire and the snow. Can hardly get better than that.

My comfy knitting couch. it was fun while it lasted but now I need to get some work done.

It was a nice Sunday morning. I have been really busy the last few weeks so this was a nice break.

 

 

Fun Knits Exclusive Lorna's Laces Colors

I am so excited to offer this new yarn

I have been working with Lorna's Laces for a while now to create a few original colors of sock yarn for the store. I got to pick the colors and with some coaching from Beth at Lorna's Laces this is the finished product. They did a spectacular job of creating the color to capture the yarns I wanted.

The first one is named Quadra Island

It is Blue, grey, cedar and purple. This color was inspired by this beautiful island, which is just east of Campbell River on Vancouver Island. I live on this island and love the scenery here so as a tribute to it we design this colorway of yarn with Lorna's Laces. The blue is for the ocean, grey the mountains, cedar for the forest, and purple for the distant mountains. Lorna's laces did a wonderful job of capturing the feel of Quadra Island with this colorway.

The second color is Fun Knits

It is Brown, brick, gold and beige. This color combination is so great. These socks look wam before they are even put on your feet. The colors for this yarn were inspired from the Fun Knits Yarn Shop. It has very warm earthy colors and is a very cozy warm yarn store. Lorna's Lace really captured the essence of the store in this sock yarn colorway.

Here are both the colors together with one sock knit from each color. I have since finished the pairs. I am really thrilled with both colors. The are great unisex colors, I actually don't have a favorite. I love them both. Please let me know what you think of them.

They are only available at my eBay store and at Fun Knits Yarn Shop on Quadra Island.

Here are some fun pictures of Megan and Meika's visit. The first one is Meika helping Grandpa get fire wood. Not sure who is having more fun but my guess would be Grandpa.

This picture I just finished bathing Meika and warming her up by the fire. I just love naked baby pictures. 

On the knitting scene. I have no pictures, too exciteed about the Lorna's laces yarn. I got 2 pair of socks done today (machine knit) the baby earflap hat nearly done, the Vogue shrug started, nice knitting with Lorna's laces shepherd worsted. It is wonderful yarn. The shrug is going to be spectacular. I will post a picture soon once I get it on a larger circular needle.

Quadra Island Craft Fair

Well we all made it through the Craft Fair. It was a lot of work but well worth it. This is a picture of our set up on the first night. Mom and I each had a table the first night. Mom's is the one with the white table cloth and mine and Megan's is the red and green one. Luckily we sold a lot the first night because we needed to condense all of this to 1 table for the next day.

This is a picture of the 4 generations of knitters. Since Meika isn't a knitter yet I let her hold my knitting. She thought that was a good deal and tried to eat the needles. We had a lot of fun.

This is day 2 of the craft fair. Mom and Dad, Megan and Meika.

Here is how much Meika liked Santa. She went stiff as a board and screamed. She hasn't figured out he is a good guy yet.



Santa and his elf both look very concerned. Meika is wearing her little Noro sweater I made her and Noro Iro Toe Kozies, Megan made her. It is a really cute outfit on her.

Sleeping peacefully after the Santa trauma all wrapped cozy in her Regia silk blanket Great Grandma made her.

It was a great weekend. The store was really busy yesterday. A lot of great projects will be strated this week on Quadra. I am starting the vogue jacket today and will post progress. I am also going to be knitting fingerless mitts in Noro Silk garden, 2 pair of socks, an earflap hat for a baby and a hooded jacket for a baby. These are all Craft fair orders.


The baby sweater and socks I will do on the machine so they will go quick. The rest is hand knitting. This is my idea of fun. 5 or 6 new projects starting all at once.

 

Yes I am still here

I have been very busy. Too busy to blog for sure. I have been knitting like mad getting ready for the Quadra Island Christmas Craft Fair, It is on this weekend Nov. 25 and 26th. Here is a list of what else I have been doing.

- Megan and Meika came to visit last week. Megan had mouth surgery and needed help with Meika, I gladly pitched in. Oh my gosh, I never knew being a Grandma would be this great!!! I will post pictures of Meika when I get more than 2 minutes to blog.
- My usual looking after my 2 special needs guys,

- Getting my son ready for the craft fair, He sells dog biscuits at the Craft fair.

- Teaching beginner knitting class on thursday evening

- Finishing a very fine knit sweater using the LLama and Angora yarn. It was really nice and its new owner has it tonight. I never even got a picture of it but it is very soft and fluffy

- Got in lots of new inventory for the store, so now I need to rearrange the store to fit it all in. For now it is my front hall.

- designed and knit Earflap hats for Baby and Mom out of Noro for the new book

- working at the store on Wed and Sat

- eBay is busy as usual, sending emails, packaging and shipping yarn

- I just got in my order from lorna's laces and I need to start this sweater for a customer. This will be a fun one to knit. She picked the colours shown.

- made 6 end to end scarves for the craft fair and a few pair of socks

- right now I need to go make a another load of dog biscuits for my son. He is asleep but I need to help out a bit so he can help package them tomorrow.

Well that is about it. I will take pictures of the craft fair. It should be fun. I am always glad when it comes and just as glad when it is over.

I will blog all about it on Sunday.

Store update

Saturday was a great day at the store. It wasn't busy like I expected but Brenda, Deb and Lisa Marie were in to knit. We had cookies and muffins. It was a real kntting party. Deb is a new knitter, I mean brand new. She just started knitting last week, she is a quick learner and had the back of her vest mostly done already. She has many more projects in mind.

Brenda is working on her Mosiac sock which she has since finished. She is multi-tasking in this picture, she is also reading. We had a lot of fun and I actually got some knitting done too. Lisa Marie is making a baby sweater with Ecoknits cotton,. It is really cute but I missed getting a picture of her and the sweater, maybe next week.

A Fun Map

Here is a link to a map that you can show us who you are and where you live and a picture of you.. This is a fun map. I got the idea from Brenda

I have done nothing but fun knitting the last 2 days. I got inspired at the store the other night and decided to dig out all my scarf yarn left overs. I have a lot. I always save a bit at the end of a scarf just for this reason. I love to knit the end to end scarves and mix up the colour and textures. So here is a picture of my fun so far and my fun yarns.

Close up of the scarves. These are for the craft far coming up in 2 weeks. I really need to get knitting socks but just can't seem to get motivated. Oh well back to playing with scarf yarn.

My web site has the patterns

I went back to a format for my web site that I know how to operate for now so I could post the patterns on it again. It looks very plain but the information is there and the free patterns have a link to them so you can just click and print. I like easy. I think the web store is a long ways away so for now I have the real store for the locals and the eBay store for the rest of the world.

Opal Saphir is on ebay

I finally got the pattern for the twinset so I post the Opal Saphir yarn on eBay. The twinset is only written in size small. That wouldn't fit me for sure so I will be working on the math today to try and make this pattern to fit more than petit women. It is a really cute pattern. The sleeveless sweater is done with 2 panel, front and back in stocking st. Then a moss stitch panel at each side to join it. This should be easy to adjust to larger sizes.
The cardigan is knit in Moss stitch from side to side, so it shouldn't be too hard to make bigger either.

Knitting fun

As always it was a fun day at the store. It was sure busy and I think a lot of people are getting knit scarves for Christmas.

Marnie brought in a scarf she is working on. Here is where you will find the pattern. It is called Yarn Party and it is perfect name for this scarf. She is making it with Mango Moon, Colinette Isis and Giotto. As always the picture doesn't do it justice. She promised to show it when it is finished also. She has a real talent for picking colours and yarns that go well together.

Meet Deb. She is Quadra's newest knitter. She came in to sign up for my begining knitter class and couldn't wait so we got her started.I think she will be a great knitter, she certainly has the desire. She cast on for a nice chunky knit vest and got about 3 inches knit before she left. We will see more from her. I will post her progress. I encouraged her to get a blog going so if she does I will link to it.

I am going to offer a 3 week beginner class starting Nov.17th and be from 7 - 8:30 for 3 consecutive Thursday evenings. The add will go in the Hungry Eye this week with more details. Since this is my first class I am only going to take 3 people and see how that goes. Deb has signed up so I have room for 2 more. It should be fun. I love teaching knitting, it is very rewarding.

On my knitting I got very little done yesterday. I got the other mitt done and a felted child's slipper. I was too excited to see how it would felt anf threw it in the washer before I had them both done. I took it over to the store yesterday to watch it dry. It turned out really nice. this it the first item I have ever felted beleive it or not so I was thrilled. I can see a lot more felting in my future. I will post a picture later once I get the second one done and before I wash it to show the size difference.

Opal Hats

Here are 2 hats I made with Opal yarn. The first one is made with the new 6ply Opal in colour 1252.

This was fun to knit. I started it with I cord on the earflaps and ended with I cord for the top decorations. It took only a small amount of the 6ply yarn and I have enough left to make a scarf to match. I have the pattern written out for both htese hats and the mitts if anyone is interested just email me at shelmack@telus.net.

 

This hat and 1 mitt is made with the new Opal Saphir. This is really nice yarn and so fun to knit with. I got the hat and a pair of fingerless mitts out of 1 ball. I will be placing this yarn on eBay next week as I am waiting for the free pattern that goes with it to arrive.

The other mitt is still on the needles and will be done tomorrow (too tired to finish it tonight). I imagine the store will be busy tomorrow so  I thought I would post this tonight with only 1 mitt made. They turned out great. I love the colours in this yarn it has green flecks instead of black. i think I will keep these mitts and hat for myself. They match my coat perfectly and fit perfect too.

 

She just gets cuter and cuter

Well I just can't resist posting another Meika picture. She is happily enjoying the hockey game tonight wearing her Canuck jersey. They are coming to visit again in a few weeks and I can't wait. sh has really changed in the last month.

On the knitting front it has been a very busy few days. I am still working on the Batik shawl and am into the gold now and done all the green. I am deciding if it is big enough or if I should knit the red next. This will make it huge. I will decide later when I measure it. I have knit many scarves in the last week. I am getting ready for the craft fairs. The store was busy tonight and I sold lots of scarf yarn. It is the season to knit nice scarves for presents.

I got the Opal Saphir yesterday. It is really nice. I have a hat 1/2 done and should be ready for a picture tomorrow. It knits up so quickly. I love it. This yarn has a bit more wooI in it compared to the sock yarn and it has very nice body. I will post the Saphir on eBay tomorrow. Here are the colours available. I didn't get any of the free patterns for the sweater yet but they should be coming soon. I want to make it. I think I like the 1200 best.

How cute is this

Meika in her Halloween costume. I cracked up laughing when I saw this. She looks so delighted.

I just got a shipment in from Cheery Tree Hill. - Wow what nice yarn. I will post about it later when I get time.

Opal Saphir coming later this week

I am excited about this new yarn coming from Opal. I should get it this week. It is a Opal Saphir and is a Sport weight yarn. Much quicker knit that the 6 ply or sock yarn yet the same great self patterning. It is available in 4 colours. All the colours are similar to the rodeo collection. I will give more detail once I actually see it and feel it. I can't wait.

Uni 2005 Colours and what they match

I was at the store on Wednesday night and instead of doing things I should have been doing I decided to colour match the new 2005 Uni to other sock yarns. I get a lot of requests for which colours match when people are buying yarn for the Bees Knees patterns. Buying yarn over the internet is hard when you can't actually hold the yarn and compare colours for yourself. These colour matches are just my opinion but I do have a good eye for colour. I have also put and * beside the colour matchI like the best.

Uni Gold - 1268
Sprintime -1220
Element 1073
Rodeo 1150
Online Caribbean 733* and 732

Uni Light Brown -1262
Prisma Rust
Rodeo 1154
Rainforest Owl*
Regia Cotton 4082, 4085
Regia Canadain 4731, 4730
Regia Brazil 5479

Uni Mauve - 1265
Opal Cotton 1173
Petticoat
Regia Canadian 4730, 4732*

Light Blue - 1267
Regia Cotton 4075
Petticoat
Regia Canadian 4726, 4727*

Teal - 1264
Regia Cotton 4075, 4081, 4086
Regia Jubilee 5465
Regia Canadain 4726
Online Sierra 581*

Rust - 1260
Prisma Rust
Regia Cotton 4079
Regia Canadain 4732
Online Sierra 580*, 581

Dark Brown - 1261
Regia Cotton 4082, 4085, 4079
Online Sierra 579
Mosiak Brown 1117
Regia Brazil 5485, 5482, 5477
Regia Canadian 4735* , 4732, 4733, 4734
Online Caribbean 732

Dark Blue - 1269
Regia Cotton 4086, 4084
Regia Brazil 5477, 5486
Online Caribbean 735, 739*
Prisma Navy 1194
Online Sierra 582

Lime Green - 1266
Online Caribbean 737, 732*
Rainforest Chameleon
Regia Canadain 4735

I have missed the medium brown and will update later when I get time.
I hope this helps with the colour selections. It was fun to do. If I get time on Saturday I will colour match the older Uni colours too. I will put this info on my web site if it ever gets back to normal.

And the Winner is -

Zebra
When Rainforest Collection first came out I wonder which yarn would be most popular and I thought it would be parrot but it turns out it was Zebra, Tiger is the next most popular. I have 1 skein left and then it is gone. The other colors are selling fast too. There is a second printing of the Rainforest in production right now but won't be here for a few months. I actually didn't like the Zebra sock yarn so it just shows I don't have popular taste. Since I have made a pair of each color so far my favorite is the Flamingo it really has a feathery look to it. My second favorite is the Parrot. I guess I am a bird lover when it comes to the sock yarn. I made several pair of Owl socks and they are very nice too. I just don't like brown for me. I made a pair for my Dad and he loves them.
I have been knitting like crazy but nothing finished to report. The schools in BC are still on strike so I am home everyday with my special needs son. It is going OK but I am really busy. He is learning to walk with a walker so we have had a lot of chance to practice this week. Yestreday he took 11 steps on his own in the walker. For anyone who doesn't follow the blog, he is 17 years old and we have been working on walking since he was about 10 so this is huge. I really beleive someday he will walk.
The store was fun on Wed. We put a big display of scarves in the window. I have been working on scarves as store samples for weeks now on Sat. I will get some pictures. Scarves are fun to knit.

Pictures of Meika

Well I wouldn't be a normal Grandma if I didn't show pictures of my Grandchild. So here are some pictures.

The first one is Megan and Meika. Two happy girls. Meika is 4 months old now and very fun. She is a really good baby and laughs and smiles all the time.

This picture is Meika in her Noro Silk Garden sweater. It is still huge on her but the sleeves roll up ok. It should fit her a while. She has learned a new tongue game and it is so cute. She worked so hard to learn this. She learned while she was visiting and has it perfected now.

Now on to the next item. The LLama yarn. These are the colours the llama merino wool blend are in. The blend is 80% llama and 20% merino wool.

I am making a pair of socks with the LLama angora. They are so soft and warm. These will be my favorite socks when it gets cold. It is hard to get a good picture to show just how fuzzy these are. I love them. I was thinking about giving them to someone as a Christmas gift but I think I will give them to me.

As for the rest of my knitting. I have parked the Bravo baby sweater for a few weeks while working on the Batik shawl. It is nearly done and will show a picture when it is done. Since I did it in fall colours I should get it done before winter. I need to get back at the Baby Bravo sweater as I want it for Meika for Christmas.

New Opal Yarns

The new Opal 6ply sock and sweater yarn is here and wow are they ever nice. The colours are very rich. I love the red and multi of course.
Also the New 2005 Uni colours are here. There are more earthy colors available now.
Thay are great for trim on the Bees Knees patterns
I am in the process of putting together list of which yarns match. This will be available on my new web site once it is operational. It is coming soon.

Also coming this week will be the Llama and angora or llama and merino wool sock yarn. It is amazing. I am knitting a pair of the llama angora socks right now. The are so warm. You can feel the warmth when knitting them. I will post here once it is all listed.
Had a good week. Megan and Meika were here so got very little else done but play with the baby. Wow is she cute. I will post a picture of her later once I sift through the hundreds of pictures and pick the best. She is so fun to play with now. She turned 4 months old on Friday. The store was great yesterday but it didn't get any pictures.

Into the gold

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all the Canadians who read this. Enjoy your turkey dinner and your friends and family. We are having our turkey tonight and lots of friends and family will be here. Should be fun.

I am into the gold on the Batik shawl. I really like it. I put it on 2 needles to see how big it is plus get a better picture. it is a little over 3 feet wide. I have the rest of the gold to knit and then gold to red. i am knitting ith 2 gold and 1 green now so I am nearly done with the green.

It is taking a lot of yarn I had to get into a 2nd skein f green so i know it will take a 2nd of red and gold too. It feels so nice. I can't wait to finish it. we certainly are having shwal weather here. It was stormy and windy all night. We lost power for a few minutes  so nothing drastic. Living on an island when the power goes out on a holiday weekend you worry.

The store was great on Saturday. I had a young man in who wants a sweater made with the pure Alpaca so I need to make that this week. I am making it on the machine so it should go fairly quickly. I got the back done yesterday. He also wants 2 pair of Owl socks. They are a nice guy colour and will match his sweater well. Mom was at the store all day and it was quite busy. Lots of knitters in needing fall projects.

I bought a swift for the store when it first opened but I have nowhere to put it up at the store. Since I had to wind all that alpaca I brought it home. I was busy doing other things in the bathroom (supervising my son) so this is where I set it up. I had to take a picture as I thought it was funny. Who else winds wool in the bathroom. It worked really well talk about mulit tasking. Well the alpaca is all wound I just need to find time to knit.


My daughter and Meika are coming tomorrow for a few days so I am really looking forward to that.

My son is very busy working on recovering the web site so it looks good again. So hopefully soon when you go to funknits.com it will look good again.

Batik Shawl

When Brenda came to the store last week and I saw her shawl I was very inspired to make one. I was also inspired by the turning leaves to make the shawl in three colours using Opal Batik, red, green and gold. I am just into the green and I can't wait to get into the gold to see how it looks. I am knitting it with 3 strands of Batik held together. I did 20 rows of all red then 20 rows 2 strands red and 1 green, then 20 rows of 2 strands green and 1 red, then 3 green etc. I am pleased with it so far. It is very thick and soft and that was the feel I was looking for. Too bad I have to work and do so much. I wish I could just knit all day and night an get this done. It is nice to knit and is knitting up quite quickly as it is thick yarn with the tree strands held together.

I have been soooooo busy. The kids are out of school in BC as the teachers are on strike and the girl who works for me with my special needs boy is away sick so I have had my boy 24 /7 for the last few days and will have for the next few days too. I know for all you mothers who have kids that seems like, big deal, but with a deafblind very busy teenager that is a big deal. He is doing great right now and is extremely active and wants to be played with all day. He is wearing me out. I was thinking of teaching him to knit. I know other blind knitters. Maybe that is what I will do today with him. My Mom has to work in the store as I will be working at home all day. I hope she has a good day.

 

Shawl fun

I had a great day at the store yesterday. It was busy all day  and I got orders for 2 more sweaters to knit and more socks, so I should be busy this week.

Brenda came to the store and we had a nice visit. It was fairly quiet so we had time for fun. She helped me pick out colours for a sweater that my Mom is going to make me for my birthday. Lucky me. I will post about it once I know for sure the colours I want. Brenda.'s shawl is amazing. It is so soft and snuggly. The sweatermaker yarn is really nice. I need to get more in the store soon.

I decided I want to make that shawl too. I am going to use 3 colours of Batik and 3 strands thick. I am going to try and do a shading change of colours.

I haven't done a swatch yet to see how it will look but I can see it in my mind and it looks great. I am too lazy tonight to wind yarn so it will have to wait.

My son is going to help me with my web site to get it looking good again. I think we are a long ways from having the online store but it is going to be a work in progress for a while. In the meantime there is always eBay. I better go get knitting.