Fun Knits Fall Knitting Retreat

Where do I begin - At the beginning I guess.

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

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

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

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

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

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










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


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










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

Well that was fun!!

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

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

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

Great Weekend

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

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

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

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

Off on another knitting/ weaving/ spinning adventure

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

What fun I had

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

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

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

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

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

The pictures are in order of event.

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

Knitter's night

Better late than never for posting about fun stuff.

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

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

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

This one is for you Mary - New Kauni Pattern

I have new Kauni pattern available on my web site here. It is a great jacket for Kauni Yarn designed and knit by Mary Tanti. So far we just have the pattern available for the adult sweater but the child's one and hat will be available soon. Mary made both these wonderful jackets with EG and EJ colours of Kauni yarn.
The pictures of Meika wearing her jacket are attempts at getting Meika to pose like Mary did. We had a lot of fun getting these pictures.
The colours are the same for both jackets but the small jacket is lighter. It is identical to the big jacket. This is a great pattern, Mary is a great designer I have many more of her patterns coming soon. Next week I am going to Salt Spring Island where Mary lives so I am looking forward to visiting her and getting more patterns to bring to you. She is friends with Lucy Neatby so has invited us for supper with Lucy one evening. That should be very fun.

Help !!

Anyone who would love to come to Hollyhock on Cortez Island please sign up today. This retreat is in jeopardy of being cancelled as a few people had to back out at the last moment.
I have been looking forward to going this retreat since Dec. and I really don't want it to be cancelled. So if you were thinking of coming and not sure - let me help you decide.
You get 4 days and 3 night of knitting, weaving, spinning, playing with fibre - great food and absolute peaceful surroundings. If you have never been to Hollyhock take my word for it - it is the most restful, peaceful place on earth.

Don't think twice it may be too late.

If you are a designer, artist, writer or anyone even remotely creative you will get at least a years worth of ideas just being there.

Spinning

Every Tuesday morning at the store we are going to have spinning. This Tuesday was our first spinning day. I have sooo much to learn but I really enjoyed spinning. Luckily Vivian and Sharon came who are both expert spinners. There were 5 of us this week and I actually produced something close to yarn.

Deb was working in the store and at times it was so busy we had to call in back up. Meika is getting old enough to work in the store. She can almost reach yarn on the 4th shelves now.

She was very busy and very cute at the store today.

I got on Ravelry

Wow is Ravelry ever neat. It is so vast/ endless. I got my invitation this morning and spent the entire morning briefly looking around it.
My name on ravelry is funknits so I will be easy to find.
I am listed as a designer on it so that is cool. It has links to some of my patterns and a list of who is making the patterns and pictures of lots of finished items people have knit. The Pinwheel sweater is the most popular knit pattern of mine.
Now that I am on Ravelry I will be posting a lot more patterns that are available. I wish I had more time
I got my first sleeve of the Kauni done last night and picked up stitches for the second sleeve. I tried it on I hope it blocks out a little bigger because it is snug. I am on a diet now for sure.

Knitting on my Kauni Cardigan

I am finally back to knitting on my Kauni Cardigan. I couldn't knit on it while I was waiting for that yarn to arrive. That seemed like such a betrayal to all the people waiting for yarn. Now that it is come I am knitting again. I don't like the purple yellow combination I am knitting right now and it is going to change to green and red, we will see how that looks. I decided a while ago that the colours for the sleeves can do what they want and I am not matching my sleeves at all.

I got in 2 new colours with this shipment. The EM (reds) and EZ(turquoise) both are wonderful alone but I think they go really nicely together. I think that will be another combination I will make a sweater out of. I really love this yarn. Can you tell.

What a busy day

Everyone who ordered Kauni yarn from me in the last few weeks - your yarn was shipped today. I will be emailing everyone but there are a lot of you so it may take a while to reach everyone. Here is Nadine our very happy Post lady with the first parcel of the day going out.
Michele that is your yarn she is holding. Nadine is just as happy as we are that the yarn came, so now I won't be bugging her daily.
We got 2 shipments today. They were ordered a week apart and arrived the same day. The one parcel was very beat up. I guess they inspected it at customs. Played football with it or something. None of the yarn was damaged thank heavens. These are very huge parcels, the 2 of them are the size of the couch.
Deb spent the entire day packaging yarn and we even have a bit left. Actually we have a lot left. I got in 2 new colours and I LOVE them. I got in EM the reds and EZ the turquoise. I will get them on the web site for sale tomorrow night. Well back to emailing.

IT CAME !!!

I will blog later. I am really busy

Let my Kauni Go !

Here is a button made by Vicki - one of my very patient Kauni customers waiting for her yarn. She made this button for the cause hoping it would help. Well Vicki it helped me feel better and gave me a good laugh. Please feel free to take this and display it on your web site if you support our cause of freeing the Kauni from Canada or International customs, whoever has the parcel.

Here is where to track this parcel with tracking # CC025124981EE . I figured that you have all paid for this yarn so you should be kept up to date on its whereabouts. Still in the customs office in MISSISSAUGA, I haven't heard from the Yarn Harlot yet but she may not have seen my email. I have one customer waiting for the yarn and she lives in Toronto, her yarn is so close but yet so far.

Kauni stuck in customs still

I spent all day on the phone yesterday and even talked to one person who was a knitter, she was very sympathetic but couldn't help me. It seems the parcel of Kauni yarn isn't valuable enough for them to check what is going on at customs. They said if there was a problem a Custom's Officer would have phoned me. What they don't understand is the value of this yarn to all who are waiting for it. I tried to get that point across but no results.
Since this yarn is sitting in some warehouse near Toronto I have asked the Yarn Harlot to rally the knitters of the area and go and picket the customs office until they releases the yarn.
Won't they be surprised if she does it, won't I, but then maybe they would see it isn't just a box of yarn coming from Denmark to some unpronounceable name in BC. ....IT IS IMPORTANT...

Finally a post

I guess I took a holiday from blogging. I have had a few people wonder whats going on and I realized I haven't blogged in a few weeks. I have been really busy.

Anyways back to blogging. I am still working on the Kauni cardigan( no recent pictures). It now has a buttonband and 1/2 a sleeve. I also bought a new loom/cat bed when I was at Gibson's and I have been playing with that a lot. I have a lot to learn about weaving but I am sure having fun. The cat didn't realize that loom falls into the same category as knitting. An absolute no no for cats. I think he really wondered what my problem was when I kicked him off the loom.

As for selling yarn I am in yarn sellers hell. The totally sold shipment of Kauni yarn is sitting in a customs office waiting to be cleared.

Luckily I have wonderful patient understanding customers, I would like to throw a party when the Kauni finally arrives but I will be too busy packaging yarn. I have lots of it coming so soon I should be able to get ahead of this yarn( I hope). Ruth's new pattern the Autumn Cardigan is certainly a hit and there has been a KAL started on Yahoo.

I have lots of fun coming this fall.

Sept 18th we are starting a Spinnning group at the store on Tuesday morning 10 am. This should be fun and educational bring your wheel and come.

Sept 20th will be our monthly Knitter's night at my house - 701 Heriot Bay Rd 7 - 9 or so come and bring your knitting.

On Oct 3rd I will be selling yarn on Salt Spring Island at this retreat. I will be meeting Lucy Neatby and that should be fun.

Oct 12th - 15th I am going to this retreat as a participant. Doesn't that sound inspiring. I can't wait. I really need some relaxing and inspiring time. I think there is still room for more participants if anyone wants to join me for this wonderful weekend. I am getting a dorm room. I went last year and it was a wonderful break. The food was fabulous and the setting is completely serene so add everything fibre to that and I would define that as the perfect weekend

Oct 26th - 28th Fun Knits will be hosting this retreat. That is going to be a lot of fun. So far we have about 35 people signed up and room for about 15 more so if you are interested act quickly.

Lots of fun activities are being planned for this. Stay tuned for lots more information on this.

Gibson's was great fun

We sold lots of yarn at Gibson's this year and had a really good time. It was a very relaxiong trip. We went there the day before we had to set up. We have to take 3 Ferries to get to Gibson's so it literally takes all day. We had a really nice place to stay, it was a small self contained 1 bedroom house. It was a very cosy home away from home. The next day we slept in :) so nice and had brunch about noon. The set up went well and they didn't have to kick us out this year.. We were finished long before they locked the doors.
The next 3 days were all about yarn and knitters, weavers spinners, such fun people.
Here are some pictures of the booth. My husband is just finishing setting up when I took these.
The last picture is Reimer spinnig lace weight Tencel on his drop spindle.

I

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.