Cutting the Kauni

I finished the body of the cardigan in the morning and was just casting off when Norma came to pick up her yarn. It was quite fun to meet up with a fellow knitter while in Vancouver. We had fun picking her yarn and talking about knitting in general.



That evening I had summoned the courage and with the moral support of my good friend Wendy. I made the first cut.

Cutting the steeks was a leap of faith for me. It just doesn't seem normal to cut your knitting at all. It all went very well and the sweater didn't fall apart. The edges barely even frayed. I was impressed. Now I have the collar done and am working on the buttonbands. I hope to have the sleeves started by the time we leave for Gibson's on Tuesday. I had sucha big order of Kauni EQ come in that I was sure I would have some to take to The Gibson's Fiberfest with me but it all sold. I still have the other colours and am once again taking pre orders for the EQ. The new shipment should arrive about Aug 3oth.

Filberg was fun

I had a great time selling yarn at Filberg festival for Judy Maclean AKA Sweatermaker. I love her yarns so it was quite easy to sell the stuff. I have a few pictures to share. The pictures are of the booth, hats Judy made, Judy knitting hats, Judy spinning her amazing yarn (wow she is good and I watched and learned) and of course some freshly spun yarn. I am going away for a week so if I am slow to answer emails that is why.

Everyone who ordered Kauin before Sunday AM it will get it sent out his week. For anyone who orders during this week. Your yarn will ship out next week.

I am off to Deafblind Family camp this week. We go every year and it is great fun. It is always nice to see the kids and the parents. Our Special needs son is Deafblind and we go for him. He loves camp too. You can read about him here at his blog.

I really need to get packing for this trip.

sorry no web cam today

Hello all, I am not able to do the web cam today or next week because of unforeseen circumstances. If you would like to call me in the store today for questions etc feel free,
250-285-2751
Thanks Megan

The Kauni is here

Anyone who pre ordered the Kauni, it is here and will be in tomorrow's mail I will email you to let you know.
I have some left and it is available at the Web Store
The new 150 gram skeins are nice and they make it easy to match the colours you want to start the sweater at. Uli and Brenda came to viit me at the store today and we had a lot of fun picking out colour combinations for Uli's Kauni cardigan. we had a great visit and they got to preveiw all the new yarn I got in.
I got so much yarn in today I am actually overwhelmed. I got in 3 huge bags ( I mean Huge) of Briggs and Little, 4 boxes of Cherry Tree Hill, the Kauni which was in a massive box and some yarn from China. What a pile of yarn.
Tomorrow and Sat I will be at the Filberg Festival selling yarn for Sweatermaker. that should be a lot of fun. If you are in the area stop by Judy's booth and say HI.

Getting ready for fall?

I for one love fall, I have already started a few fall projects. To get started on your Kauni sweater or your new favorite socks click the link below for great deals. Web cam shopping allows you to see the colors of the yarn and get real time on line customer service. First time web cam customers get 10% off and free shipping if you spend over $50.
This offer is only for a limited time so act fast.
I will not be doing the web cam on Aug 3rd or the 17th
So click for your discount today ;-)

Meeting: July272007

Kauni skein nightmare

I bought a skein of Kauni EG and EK from my last shipment and have a design in mind using both of the colours. I had a few spare minutes last night so I decided to wind the yarn. Well 6 hours later it was wound. The skein of EG was a nightmare. It had 6 ends hanging down at 1 time. My guess is the person who was hired to Spit splice the yarn didn't have the right spit that day or didn't know how to make it stay together. I can only hope got the dud skein and none of my customers got one. Here are the pictures of my ordeal.

The first picture shows all the ends hanging down. My first clue I had a big problem. 2nd - all the little balls I started from these ends. 3rd - back up arrives, 4th - solution to my very helpful back up, boy she really wanted to help Grandma spin the swift. Finished balls of yarn. The green one took 10 minutes and was very well behaved. The pink took nearly 6 hours.

Grandma's little helper

Meika was quite busy tonight. She came over to play after supper and decided her little people animals all need to be warm. She tucked them into the Kauni yarn balls and into my knitting.

She thinks I am knitting her toys a blanket. Won't she be surprised when I wear the blanket.

I figure with all the help from Meika and the little people I should be done this sweater very soon.

web cam shopping today

Join us today on the web cam and get 10% off your first purchase and free shipping if you spend over $50
just click the link below to enter the store and chat window
Meeting: July202007

~Megan

I am loving knitting the Kauni cardigan

I am really enjoying knitting the Kauni cardigan. I just can't put it down. Too bad I don't have more time to knit. This sweater would be done very quickly. It is so neat to watch the colours emerge
I wish I could take the next 2 weeks off and go to my cottage and sit and knit. No such luck so I will just steal any chance I get to knit on it. I have 2 more orders of the yarn coming in. Why 2 orders you ask instead of 1 big one. The company seems to only ship 30 KG at a time to Canada. So we are getting 60 KG of this yarn in. Over 1/2 in EQ and the rest will be the same colours we have and 2 new ones ES and ET a red one and a denim one. I will show pictures once it arrives. I am continuing to presell the yarn.
You may wonder why I am preselling only to people who email me. Well this way I can make sure I have contact before hand everyone who is interested in the yarn and that they know it won't be shipped until it arrives. Also I don't want to miss anything by accident.
So if you want Kauni EQ you can pre order by emailing me at shelmack@telus.net
I still have a few of the EP and EJ left in XL and XXL sizes.

Boot Camp for Socks

Our Mission - To seek out remaining scarf knitters and get them to defect. Once indoctrinated into sock knitting they become hostages to the growing trend. They won't be able to resist

Tofutsie Sock yarn. I have it in stock again in all these colours.

Come to the store and check out the great selection of Tofutsie. We have several knit samples and we got a cool banner for the window plus I got a (terrible) cool T shirt to wear. It is bright pink camoflague with Boot camp for scoks written on it. Actually it is a fun T shirt just not something I would normally wear.

Here are some great pattern for knitting with Tofutsie - A pattern for Tofuttens yes you better go look to see what Tofuttens are.

I especially like this one Knit and crochet socks

And this pattern is great for socks for summer

So if you can't get into the store and you can't resist the Tofutsie then call me at 250-285-2751 between 10 am and 5 pm Pacific time and I will help you buy some.

Webcam shopping today

Hello all,
I am doing the webcam shopping today. We have some new yarn, Opal Cotton Hunterwasser, and Opal cotton Uni. Both wonderful sock yarns, in great colors. To veiw these just click the link below and join me on webcam. If you are a first time webcam customer you will recieve 10% off your purchase and free shipping over $50.
Also we do have some of the Kauni yarn left, its going fast.
Hope to see some of you today. If you start typing and dont get a response right away I may be away from the computer for a few mins, but bear with me I will be checking every few mins.
thanks ~Megan
Meeting: July132007

It's Here!!!

The big order of Kauni has arrived.

Here is the yarn box before we opened it and after. They sure know how to pack a lot of yarn in a box. It literally exploded open.

I am really glad it came. For everyone who ordered the yarn it will be in tomorrow's mail. I am happy!!

I also wanted to show you that I can finish a pair of socks. just need to sew in the ends. These are my husbands new socks - sorry about the blur.

They fit him good (darn I actually wanted them) . I guess I have to knit a matching pair.

Back to work packing yarn.

The Kauni didn't come yet

Sorry ------I wish I could say it did but it didn't. Hopefully Monday. I know a lot of people will be dissapointed but what can we do but wait, wait, patiently wait------------------------
I know what I can do. I have a ball of Opal Feelings 1701 and it has a very long colour repeat so I am going to knit a pair of socks using the corrugated rib and 2 handed fair isle technique to try it out. I will be all ready when the yarn comes.
I am at the store right now but when I get home I will take pictures of it.

Happy Canada Day

We had a great Canada Day. There was a fun celebration at Rebecca Spit on Quadra Island. It is amazing how many people turn out for these event. It isn't over yet as it ends with fireworks after dark but we had to come home early.

I participated in the Children's festival and we knit a red and white scarf, the kids took turns knitting a row. I wish I could show you all the pictures but I won't show other people's children on the Internet without permission.

Here are a few of Meika at the celebration

Hope everyone had a fun Canada Day.

Taking poll

Hello everyone, I just wanted to find out if anyone has found that the web cam shopping is something they would do again, or something they would want to try. I have not had allot of success with it and I'm just trying to figure out if its worth while continuing. I look forward to reading your comments
Thank you
Megan
Also if anyone would like to order Toe Kozies you can e mail me toekozies@gmail.com

Congratulations Mary

Congratulations Mary Tanti...... She didn't win 1st (she should have) but she won 3rd which is still a really big deal. She will have her pattern published by Cherry Tree Hill ( you can see the winners there) and her jacket is going to London to be shown at Alexander Palace. Not bad for a first published design. Way to go Mary. She has lots of patterns coming. The next one is reversible sock. Watch for that one.

We will have the kits available to buy for the Mitred jacket in the near future.

Kauni yarn Update. I had an email from Kauni this morning and the shipment was sent out last week so should arrive this week.

If you are interested in pre ordering email me shelmack@telus.net

Here are the colours we will have available. The yarn kits are $60 for small -medium and large and $65.00 for extra large which you will have to resize yourself. Can't wait for it to come in

Kauni arriving soon

We are getting in some Kauni yarn. I have ordered 2 batches. A small one that will arrive first of EQ ( rainbow)and then a larger batch with More EQ and more colours EF(Greys, blues, purples), EJ (beige, rose, brown), EG(purple - browns), EK( greens, golds, grey), EP( rust, browns). Since this is such a neat cardigan and I have never done steeks we decided to have a Kauni Knit along. I know I will need help with this process. Brenda is going to host the Knit along and it should be a lot of fun. Thanks Brenda.
There is a wonderful blog about knitting the Kauni Cardigan at Purlwise and Melinda gave me permission to link to her blog. I know I will refer to it often. She has detailed everything about knitting the cardigan including how to knit the first row in corrugated rib so you don't get the line of wrong colour.
I am very anxious for the Kauni yarn to come. Now we wait. I will have enough for about 7 cardigans in the first order and enough for 35 in the 2nd order. I will see how this does and place order 3 soon if it looks like we will need it. The price will be 0 .125 a gram for the yarn making a sweater about $60 - $65. Canadian or US. This could go up if I am charged horrendous duty but probably not. I have never ordered from Denmark before so who knows.
Keep watching the blogs for more details.

Party week at our house

This week Meika turned 2 and my special needs son Cameron graduated from High School.

Meika's 2nd birthday was very fun( I just realized Meika shares her birthday with Stephanie The Yarn Harlot, well that cinches it Meika will definitely be a knitter). Lots of kids, food and cake. She had a good time. She is having a second party today for more of the family and her little friends. She was so cute at her party. The picture is of her finger painting with her icing. Lots of fun. I don't have pictures of her opening presents as I had to share the Camera batteries to make her present work, Grandma forgot to buy batteries.

About Cameron he became an adult this year and is transitioning from school to work I decided the best way to document things is with a blog. So we started Cameron a blog. Check it out. It is called Intervention at it's best and this is because Cameron is Deafblind and requires an Intervenor to help him communicate. You can read all about his Grad party here. The picture is of Cameron and Willie. She is his Intervenor and has been for the last 8 years of school. We are really going to miss her.

Web Cam Shopping Today

It is a beautiful Friday here on Quadra. Come see our store via web cam, you can view yarn and purchase if you wish. Our web cam allows you to see anything you like in real time. Your first purchase will be 10% off and if you spend over $50 will will take care of the shipping.
Just click the link below to experience Fun Knits in real time, there is a place for you to type to me as well. Its similar to the msn chat windows.
Hope to see some of you today.
~Megan
Meeting: June15007

A Very Fun Weekend

This was a great weekend. Victoria's 1st Fiberfest was a real hit thanks to Marilyn. Marilyn and her family did a wonderful job of putting on a very fun weekend for all the knitter's who came. It all started Friday night with a wonderful fashion show and dinner. The Dinner was great Meika even mastered chopsticks. She learned that you pick food up with chopsticks, drop it then eat it with her fingers.( thats just how I use chopsticks) The garments modeled were great. I especially loved the multi directional Noro sweater. I want one.

The next day I taught sock knitting in the morning. It was fun but I didn't get any pictures to show you. I was too busy teaching. I had 7 students and they all will be sock knitters.

In the afternoon I took a weaving class. It was great and I learned so much, now I reallllllly want a nice loom.

After the classes I met up with Megan, Uli and Brenda and we headed out to see the Yarn Harlot speak. She was very funny and I enjoyed her talk.

I think she took a picture of me taking a picture of her - what do you think.

We hung around and knit for a long time watching everyone get books signed then we took Stephanie out to the Canoe Club to have a party with a bunch of other knitter's. It was very fun. I was sitting beside this guy who just didn't get what all the knitter's were doing and what was the big deal about knitting anyways. He and his friends were a bit loaded so I thought it would be very fun to teach him to knit so he could get an idea of how neat knitting was. Stephanie helped in this and taught him the cowboy method of knitting. Now I had never heard of this method but it was very entertaining. It is certainly a method that appealed to these drunk guys. I think when they sober up they will have the desire to knit and not know why.

Look at the picture of Stephanie's knitting abandoned on my table at the bar, but I'll bet if I had gone for the yarn she would have caught me. I love that sweater and I am going to try and get that yarn into the store. It is wonderful and the finished sweater is amazing

The Knit Out the next day was - - well -- wet, wild, windy and fun. It took me twice as long to set up as I wasn't going to let 1 ball of yarn get wet. I had a lot of plastic and tarps. At one point in the day it was so windy that I couldn't even leave my chair as I was holding the entire tent from blowing away. I am not kidding. I sold lots of yarn and met lots of old and new friends. I gave out a lot of flyers for the Fun Knits Retreat and the Retreat that I am going to at Hollyhock.

Judy Frabotta who is presenting the Hollyhock retreat came with her spinning wheel and spun yarn all day. It was wonderful to visit her again and watch her spin, she looked so relaxed and made spinning look so easy. I am definately going to play with spinning and weaving when I go to Hollyhock.

So that was my very fun weekend. I realized something this weekend - I am getting too old to party all weekend and then function on Monday morning.

It arrived in time for the Knit Out

Both my orders from the States. Cherry Tree Hill Supersock and Lorna's Laces Sherherd Sock yarn arrived yesterday. Yeah!!!. Quadra Island colour is now back in stock. It is wonderful. From this batch of Quadra Island. I am going to knit myself a pair of socks. Can you believe I still don't own a pair of Quadra Island, Fun Knits or Olympic socks. This is going to be my summer knitting goal.

Anyone who has emailed me and want Quadra Island it will now be available on the internet at the Web Store

I also got in quite a few solid colours as requested by my customers. I will be bringing all of the yarn I bought to Victoria to the Knit Out.

If anyone has any special requests for me to bring to the Knit Out please email me at shelmack@telus.net. I am packing today. Mary if you read this I have remembered you Blue/ Purple Kid silk yarn. This is going to be a really fun weekend

We are ready!!

You can start to register for the Fall Knitting retreat at Tsa-kwa-luten Lodge.
We are ready to accept registration earlier than I thought we would be. I have a list of names and you are all on list as pre registered so feel free to register now. You can register in several different ways
1 - Online at Fun Knits and just follow the links - you can pay with Paypal
2 - Print out this form and mail it to us with the information. If you are paying by check please make it payable to Fun Knits
3 - You can phone the store Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 5 pm Pacific time 285-2751. If we are busy and you get the answering machine - we will call back soon.
4 - If you are coming to the Knit Out in Victoria this weekend you can pick up a registration form at the Fun Knits tent on Sunday.
You can read all about the retreat and the lodging at the web site, I think this will fill up quite quickly so if you aren't ready to register yet but want to go on the waiting list email me at shelmack@telus.net
I wanted to get all of this ready before we go to Victoria this weekend. I am taking the flyers down with me.

1 job done and about 20 to go before we leave for Victoria - See you all there

Count down to the Knit Out

Next weekend is the Victoria Fibrefest and Knit Out. I can't wait. It starts off on Friday night with a dinner and a fashion show. Megan and Meika are going to be in it and I will get lots of pictures. Reminder - Pack the camera - anyone who really knows me please email shelmack@telus.net on Friday morning early and remind me to take the camera. We will see if that help. I will remember everything else like yarn, clothes,knitting etc but I always forget the camera.
I am teaching a sock knitting class on Sat morning and I will be missing the Victoria yarn crawl. The afternoon I will be taking a weaving class. I will have to figure out how to get to the yarn shops in my lunch I guess.
The evening will be great Stephanie Pearl McPhee aka The Yarn Harlot will be speaking. That shold be a lot of fun
Sunday is the knit Out also going to be great fun. Hope to see lots of knitters there, stop by the Fun Knits tent and say hi.

Web cam shopping today

Getting a late start today, I think I'm still in holiday mode. I hope to see some of you today on our web cam shopping. I have all kinds of fun things to show off today. Don't forget, if you are a first time web cam shopper you get 10% off and free shipping over $50. Just click on the link below to begin your on line web cam shopping experience
Meeting: June12007

Exciting News

We have booked not just 1 but 2 knitting retreats for this year. Oct 26-28 2007 and March 28 -30 2008.
The retreat in Oct will be great fun. We are working on the details but so far it will be the theme Getting Ready for Christmas. We all know as knitters, hand knit gifts are the best and this is retreat is early enough to have time to knit something fabulous for your favorite person on your list. We will have demo's on many gift items. Watch for details soon. Lots to come since we are in the planning stages. This retreat will fill up quick so let me know at shelmack@telus.net if you want to be on the list. Registration will begin in July.
No need to bring sleeping bags this year ----
The best news is where we are having the retreats. We have booked Tsa- Kwa- Luten Lodge entirely for both retreats.(We get the whole lodge). Go and have a look at this place. I was out there yesterday for a tour and WOW is it ever nice. The rooms are very comfortable looking. The food is fabulous and the setting is truly breathtaking. Go and look at the power point presentation on there web site. The cost will be higher than last years retreat but it will be worth the extra luxury we will have.
The retreat all inclusive (2 nights, all your food, entertainment, supplies etc) will be $260 based on triple occupancy in a loft room. You can book a semi- private room for $40 each extra or a private room for $80 extra for the weekend. I am working on all of the details but I just wanted everyone to know what is upcoming. I am really excited to be able to offer this retreat at such
great location. Let me know what you think

We had FUNNNNNNNN!!

We are back from our shopping spree at West Edmonton Mall. Wow that was fun. I bought a bunch of new clothes and some great new bamboo and cotton sheets plus a new quilt and sheet set and new towels for my bathroom. I spent too much and ate too much but it was sure fun. I forgot my camera at home so I have no pictures. Megan remebered her camera so she will send me some pictures and I will post some then. I even got some knitting done.
A great mini vacation. Mom and Megan had a lot of fun too. Meika was great as always.

A 4 generation shopping trip

My Mom, my daughter and grand daughter and I are going on a serious shopping weekend. We are flying to Edmonton tomorrow and will be back on Sunday. I have always wanted to check out West Edmonton Mall so that is what we are doing. I think it will be a lot of fun. So I will be away from my computer for a few days so if I don't answer emails quickly that is why. I'm gone - shopping. The store will be open as usual but we won't have Web Cam shopping this Friday. Megan is the only one who runs the web cam shopping and she will be very busy shopping too.
Deb is going to be at the store while we are away.
This is going to be great. I think shop until you drop will take on new meaning after this weekend.
See you on Sunday and I will let you know how the weekend went. I looked at a list of stores in the mall and I noticed there are no yarn stores there at all. Imagine that!!

Wonderful New yarn

I have some wonderful new yarn available on the web site . The Online sock yarn in 3 wonderful collections. City, Tropic and Summer Beach Cotton. All of the colours are great. Look on the web site to see the pictures.

I also have a great new yarn called Indulgent Socks. Can you guess from the name that these have cashmere in them. This yarn is 80% Merino wool and 20% Cashmere. What a pleasure this yarn is to knit with. I whipped up this little sock yestreday and have already cast on the second one. Now that really says something when I can knit a pair, one after the other. This is available in 5 colours. Check my Web Store for details.

Web cam shopping... today only, Online sock yarn Sale

Today only get new on line sock yarn for $10 a ball reg price $11.95 in store or Web Cam shopping only

Click the link below to begin your web cam shopping
Meeting: May182007 10 am - 5pm Pacific time

Top picture is Online Cotton Summer. The colours are more mute than the picture shows but they are beautiful.


The next 2 yarns are Online Tropic and City. Click on the pictures to make them larger.

hope to see you soon
~Megan

Visitor at Knitter's night

It was princess. Meika has named the kitten I want Princess. She is only 4 weeks old so she only came for a brief visit. We didn't want her to miss her Mom. Judy is holding her in the picture. Isn't she sweet.

We did lots of knitting and talking. It is very soothing to sit together and knit. A fun night