A Very Fun Retreat

This weekend was very fun. The retreat went well and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I had a lot of fun and it was great to meet so many knitters. There were 40 knitters at the retreat. All ages and all levels of knitting experience. I have a lot of pictures. I didn't even get my camera out until Saturday so I don't have any pictures of the store packed with about 30 knitters on Friday night. It was fun.

On Saturday morning we started the Teddy Bear sweaters. The first pictures are of people working on the sweaters. Charlotte 11 years old was our youngest knitter at the retreat and she knit a fun pink teddy sweater. Then Saturday afternoon I thought what better for knitters than to play with yarn so they got 25 samples of different yarn to play with. I didn't get any pictures of the Yarn sampling as I was too busy. .

I got lots of pictures of the Fashion Show/ Show and tell. This was a great activity. What better for knitters than to get to look at other knitters knitting.

Roger's Gansey, Marilyn's wedding shawl, Mary's Escher inspired seal sweater. Myriam's shawl and Carol's Award winning Stary night socks

The retreat ended today with some wonderful group shots of the well dressed Teddy Bears. Some of the people left early today so their Teddy's didn't get in the pictures.

Charlotte was very proud of her first sweater. She knit this with very little help from her mother. She doesn't really like knitting on double pointed needles so I think next year she will learn the magic loop method of circular knitting. The next picture is Megan, Meika and the Teddy all wearing the Pinwheel sweaters.

A few group photos of our well dressed Teddy's and their owners. This was fun I think we will do this again next year. I will blog more about the retreat tomorrow. I have a lot more pictures. We have an original Teddy sweater, pictures of bloggers meeting etc....

no mega meeting today

Due to the Knitting retreat and the very busy day I'm going to have getting ready for it I wont have time to do the mega meeting today. I will be doing it next Friday so Look for mega meeting on next Fridays blog.
Hope to see you then
~Megan

Just 1 more day

Just 1 day until the retreat. I am excited. For everyone coming to the retreat. Please bring a good variety of your knitting needles. I mentioned in the hand out to bring 4 - 5 mm needles. Some of the sweaters need smaller and 1 needs 5.5mm dp and 16" circulars. I have lots of needles people can borrow if they don't have that size or the store has a good stock for buying needles.
Please drive safe and I look forward to meeting all you wonderful knitters. We have 40 people coming to the retreat. I can't even imagine how fun this will be. I will certainly post lots of pictures and details after the retreat. Note to myself- Don't forget the camera....

Happy St. Patricks Day

Here are some pictures for St. Patricks' Day. I haven't put any pictures of Meika on the blog for a long time. She is so cute and especially cute today all in green with her shamrock hair band.
Here she is cleaning the house. Child labour
Here is a picture of Sweetie. Many of you may remember him last year when we got him . You need to scroll down the post to see Sweetie. As you can see he has improved a lot. He is now happy, playful and very healthy.
Lastly here are some of the bears all dressed and ready to go to camp next weekend. We have a few more waiting for sweaters. I am really busy getting ready for camp. It should be a lot of fun.

10% off your megameeting purchase

Its Friday again everyone. That means its mega meeting day again. So join us , come say hi and tell me where you are from.For a limited time this spring I'm giving mega meeting customers 10% off, and if your first purchase is over $50 I will throw in free shipping.
So click on the link and join us for another mega meeting Friday. Chat ,shop, ask questions , just have fun.
Meeting: march162007
I have the camera pointed out at the store so you will see the entrance and all the beautiful yarn when you log on. Hope to chat with ya today
~Megan

T.G.I.F

Hi Megan here,
Its Friday again, and that means its mega meeting day. Now don't be shy when you sign on . There is a chat box just below the web cam. Say hello and where you are from. Also I thought I should mention you have no obligation to shop or buy anything. But if you wish to do so it is allot of fun with the web cam. I love shopping in my pj's :-)
So come on in to fun Knits today and have a chat with me, tell me about your projects, ask me questions, let me know what you think of mega meeting.
I hope to see you today.
Just click on the link below and sign in, its so easy.
Meeting: 9march2007

Fibre Fun

I had a great day today. I went down to Courtenay to Judy Macleans of Sweatermaker yarns to do some business. I love going there I am sure you can see by these pictures why. Fibre paradise!!!

I came home with some fabulous hand dyed tops for spinning, needle felting or whatever. They are going in the store tomorrow and on the internet by the weekend. I have Silk and Merino blends and Blue faced lester wool tops all hand dyed in beautiful colours.

This beautiful fibre is inspiring me to learn to spin. It is so soft and wonderful. Enjoy the pictures.

Victoria was fun

Here are pictures of our trip to Victoria. The first picture is Deb way in the back of the van buried in yarn and racks. She happily sat in her corner and knit there and back. The next picture she took of me in the front. I was knitting my Tofutsie sock. I wanted it finished to show how nice and soft the yarn is.

Socks finished. As usual not a pair but they don't look bad together. The blue on is Regia Bamboo. Nice yarn. The next picture was the night view from our room. Much nicer in person. That is the Parliament building lit up at night. It was really pretty

Then of course the booth. Not bad looking for a 10X10 space. I worried how I would cram all that yarn in a little space but I have a lot of experience in that department. The booth didn't even look cluttered and lots of room for shoppers. I am happy to say that there were lots of shoppers and they bought lots of yarn. We came back a bit lighter. It was a great weekend.

I also want to mention the retreat only has a few spaces left so you may be out of luck if you don't register today or tomorrow.

Shop on line with live customer service

Hi everyone, I'm Megan Shelley's daughter and I'm very happy to announce that we are finally launching our new on line shopping option. Every Friday I will be on line with mega meeting on our web cam ready for you to join the meeting and serve you. This way no matter where you are in the world you can shop as tho you are really in the store. You will see me and you will be able to see the actual colors of the yarn you are buying. This will be our first day so you may have to bear with me while we work out the bugs. I hope this is a fun experience for everyone. As far as payment goes we are still working on that, you may mail a check and we will send out your product as soon as we get it or you may phone fun knits with a credit card number and we will ship it on Monday.
All you do to get started is click on the link Meeting: 2march2007
Easy... Hope to see a few of you today. Happy shopping :-)

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

Registration for the Retreat

I have had a lot of interest and a lot of people are registered. This is going to be such a great retreat. I have made it easier to register. The link and all the information is on the front of my web page. There is a form you can print out and mail with a check if prefer to pay that way. Checks can be postdated but no later than March 1. If you need any help or information don't hesitate to call the store 250-285-2751 leave a message if we aren't open and we will call you back during business hours or just email me at shelmack@telus.net.

Spring Knittng Retreat

This is probably the most fun thing I have blogged about in a long time. Check this out and then sign in quickly as this will fill up fast. Fun Knits Spring Knitting Retreat March 23-25. 2007. It only costs $150. Canadian for the entire weekend. All your food, all your workshops and your accommodations. Look at the place we get to stay in. This is a 20,000 sq ft place called Rivendell. It has a huge fireplace to sit in front of and knit, large deck overlooking the ocean etc...

I have been to 2 retreats at Camp Homewood at the Machine Knitters Camp. The food was great. I am very excited we were able to get this place for our Retreat. Check out the web site for more details and to sign up. Then get knitting as we are having a fashion show on the Sat. Night. It would be fun to meet some bloggers in person. So gather your friends and make a weekend of this. I can't wait!!

Canadian contest - Win some Opal sock yarn

Here is a great chance to win yourself some Opal sock yarn and show off your socks or other knit garments from sock yarn at the same time. This draw is open to Canadian residents only - sorry U.S. and International readers. Win Sock yarn Send your pictures of anything you have knit using OPAL YARN to info@ladybugyarns.ca and good luck. The draw will be Feb 1/07. I will be watching to see if I recognize any of the winners.

New Stuff

Here is what I was going to post before we were so rudely interupted by Norwalk Virus. We are all feeling much better now.

I got a wonderful new sweater from my Mom for Christmas. It was finished a little after Christmas but that is OK. It is a little tight so now it fits better since I was sick. I don't recommend Norwalk as weight loss method but it does work. The sweater is knit with Cherry Tree Hill Potluck Bulky. Mom used 5 of the 6 skeins to knit this. It is her own design and I love it. I love the way the front patterned. I also got in some new sock yarn to the store. Wow is it ever nice. I only got 2 balls of each colour so far and I am not offering it for sale on the web site yet. It is SWTC TOFUtsie selling for $17.50 Canadian. If anyone wants some just email me and we can work out a sale. I only have 30 balls well less now as some have sold. This yarn is wonderful . I took a ball to the hospital with me and started some socks to match my new sweater. It is really nice to knit with. I am knitting my socks with #727 the colour on my new sweater above. I will post a picture of my sock once I get more done on it. Here is a picture of my little Beanie Bunny in his new sweater. I decided to make store sample sweaters to show the yarn and put them on Teddy Bears and Bunnies. This little bunny is wearing patons Soy Wool blend. It is really nice yarn so soft and warm.

When will I ever learn !!!!!!!

When will I ever learn not to brag when my special needs son is doing well. I jinxed that poor guy so bad by saying he hadn't been in hospital for the entire year of 2006. Literally New Years eve we all got Norwalk Virus. By the 2nd Megan and Meika were sick and then by the 4th the boys were sick. My poor special needs boy had to go into hospital for a few days. He was really sick. Do you think I will ever learn not to tempt fate like that. When he goes in hospital I always stay with him to help out - his needs are quite complex. Well I got it too - talk about sick. I was too sick to knit. I bought simple socks to the hospital with me and sat there the first day too sick to knit at all. I have never been to sick to knit before. The next day I could knit and I designed a sock pattern and called it Norwalk. I cast on 64 sts. and did a tight cable all the way around. It was too tight to even fit Meika so I had to rip it out. I spent the rest of the time knitting plain socks that I can actually wear. We finally got home tonight and I guess we will all live. Hopefully we never get that again and I will never blog about my sons good health again.
Anyone who came by the store on Friday and it was closed due to illness well that was why. Be glad you didn't come into contact with me and get this. I am in hiding now until Thursday then I will be back in the store. No risk of catching it from me by then.
Anyways on to some interesting news.
I was published in the local Newspaper this month here is the link to the article. You may need binoculars to read it. I found it hard to read - very small print(or maybe I am still too sick to read small print). It was a good article thanks to Tanya. It was a fun interview.
Well here is hoping the rest of 2007 will be better than this first week.

Noro Cashmere Island

This is my New Years offering at the Web Store. Wonderful Noro Cashmere Island in 4 colours. It is 60% wool, 30% cashmere and 10% nylon.

I made these socks for my daughter and they are so soft and warm - she loves them.

They are knit on 3mm needles and are a nice dense fabric so should wear very well with the 10% nylon.

The free sock pattern is on the web site under the Cashmere Island at the Web Store.

I think I will make myself a pair of these now. Wow are they nice.

Welcome to 2007

2006 was a good year in many ways. My family was all healthy and well including my special needs son who is unwell a lot.This is the first year since he has lived with us, ( nearly 17 years now) that he didn't have any hospital stays. Cool eh!

My store was great. Here are a few knitting highlights of 2006

Had the store 1st anniversary

Won the Gold prize at elann for my Pinwheel sweater design

Got my Web Store up and running

Got a pattern published in Magknits

Got another pattern published in Knitty

Moved to my new and bigger store with a huge back room

Met lots of great knitters this year. Went to a few shows with the yarn.

Gibson's Fibrefest

Victoria Knitout

Campbell River Sew and craft show

This year I am going to

Campbell River Sewing and Craft show Feb.23-24

Victoria Sewing and Craft show March 1-3

International fibrefest in Abbotsford in May

and Gibson's Fibrefest in Aug

It should be a fun year.

Plans for the store this year

I am going to contuinue to organize the new store.

I am going to get Web Cam shopping happening very soon. It will be available on Thursday, Fridays and Saturday. This will be a really fun feature in the store. No matter where you live you can come into the store real time via web Camera and get help with your purchases. For example. I had a customer the other day wanting to match colours for a Bees Knees pattern and it would be so easy for her to make choices of colour combinations over the web cam in real time instead of e-mailing back and forth. I am excited about this and it will be coming soon. Internet shopping with customer service.

I am going to rearrange the Web Store and organinize my web site a bit better.

I am going to design lots more patterns.

I am going to set up our gift section of the store to sell the items we make, Socks, sweaters Toe Kozies etc also set up my special needs son's day program and get his items selling in the Gift section also.

It looks like it will be another busy year. I like to keep busy so this should be a great year.

Lastly but certainly not least. I am going to really enjoy having my daughter Megan and Gran daughter Meika living here on Quadra. Megan and I are doing a great trade on Fridays. She is working in the store and I get to play with Meika all day. I will leave with some very cute pictures I took last night at out family New Years party. This my cousin's 2 year old dancing with Mieka ( very cute) and Meika saying Hi to everyone.