Another Retreat is Over

Everyone had a great time. The retreat started on friday after everyone arrived we had a wonderful Salmon dinner. After dinner we met in the great room for introductions and a summary of the weekend. Then we all went to the store and shopped, It was fun. My husband make great snacks and stayed and played his guitar while people shopped. It was a nice evening.

Saturday was workshop day and was quite busy. I sat in on the spinning workshop and tried out a different wheel. I spun some white merino in lace weight. The new spinners all met with the usual frustration of spinning the wheel the wrong way and breaking the yarn etc - - - but they all learned lots and I saw a few skeins of handspun at the end of the day.

In the afternoon I took the dyeing workshop with Judy Maclean. We did 2 water bath dyes - one on bamboo merino and the other on merino nylon.

Then the most fun was to do a microwave hand painted skein. We were all give red, blue, yellow and none of the skeins looked the same. Lots of colour blending and shading going on.

This was really fun and exciting to see the finished results.

After a wonderful chicken dinner we watched Holli Yeoh' presentation. We had a mini fashion show of her garments on 5 cute kids. They really did a good job. Holli's presentation was wonderful and very inspiring. Everyone really enjoyed this.

Sunday morning after a massive breakfast we all waddles downstairs for the Show and tell. What talent. Amazing knitting, just amazing. After everyone had a good look at the garments we had lunch and said Good bye until Oct.

Yes we are having another Retreat in October. I will blog about this in greater detail soon but just make sure to mark Oct 3rd weekend off your calendar.

A Sale you don't want to miss

Here is the list of sale items in the store Sat - April 5 10am - 5pm

10% off everything in the store

25% off all Opal, Online and Regia sock yarn, all Paton's and Sirdar yarn and Emu Superwash DK

50% off Rowan Kid Soft, Colinette Banyan, Bravo Crazy Colour, Cherry Tree Hill Potluck Worsted and Mohair and Valeria de Roma Tona and Garbi

This should help make room for the new inventory coming in.
The retreat is this weekend so you won't hear from me until at least Sunday night. I have the camera packed so should get a few pictures.

Look what just arrived

Finally it is here

Fun Weekend

The Sewing and Craft show in Victoria was quite fun. We got down to Victoria on Wed. night and had a relaxing evening then Thursday we set up. Lately I have had 10X20 booths but this show is expensive so I got my usual 10X10 booth. I took enough yarn for a 10 X30 booth and somehow we crammed it all into the booth quite nicely. Raven helped us set up and sell yarn all weekend. She got some great pictures of the set up chaos. She was a great help right to the end. I actually got a picture of the booth this time. It is truly amazing how much yarn we got in this booth and could still move around. I prefer a big booth but this worked. There were times when the booth had about 10-15 shoppers in it too.

I also taught sock knitting at Victoria so with the help of Joan and Mary there are now 26 new sock knitters in the world. It was fun to teach with Joan and Mary we worked really well together and all of the students are now sock knitters. They each turned the heel and were well on their way to the toe before we left.

We pulled down the booth in record time again and went out for dinner. What a nice weekend. This week I will be getting ready for the Knitting Retreat coming this weekend at TsaKwaluten lodge. We still have room available if you have been thinking about coming and just not sure. You have until Thursday to register.

The classes are going to be great but you can just come and knit - enjoy the peaceful surroundings of Quadra Island. Sat night should be really good with Holli Yeoh of Bees Knees Knits. We are having a fashion show with little models for her sweaters and she will be talking about her inspirationand ideas. This should be inspiring.

Friday night we are having a huge blow out sale at the store for the Retreat participants. The sale will continue Sat but it may be picked over well by then.

For everone coming - See you all at the retreat.

Off to Victoria

We are going to the Sewing and Craft show in Victoria. We are going a day early so we can set up tomorrow and then go shopping. Should be fun. I love Victoria in the spring but this year spring forgot to come here so far - so I hope it remembered to come there. We even had snow here yesterday.
Today the store will be closing at 2pm so we can get going to Victoria. For anyone who reads the blog and lives near Victoria see you there.
I have a small booth and I am taking my usuual amount of yarn so it should be an interesting set up. I will try and get a picture this time.

Fun Spun Socks

The first day I was in Madrona I met Ruth from Dizzy Ewe - Stephanie aka Yarn Harlot took me around the merchant mall and pointed out a few highlights of the shopping pleasures. She had been to Madrona before and I was just standing in the middle of the Merchant mall not knowing where to begin when she spied me.

I think she sensed the Yarn seller from very small town BC was star struck. She introduced me to Ruth of Dizzy Ewe and pointed out her kits with combination fibres she told me that she had spun yarn to make socks. I loved the idea. Here are Stephanies blog post (scroll down to Feb 24th) about the fibre. I just spent 15 minutes looking for her post to link to and when I found it she did the same colour as me. I was hoping for something to show a different colour hmmm!!!

Anyways back to the Fun Spun socks.

These were really fun to do. The fibre is just amazing and they are a great project for a spinner who gets bored easily like me.

The pictures show you how to do this.

First I divided the fibre in 1/2 - enugh for 2 socks

Then I divided each 1/2 into 3rds as I also found out at Madrona that a tightly spun 3 ply will hold up well for socks

I then spun each small section of fibre in colour order onto 3 bobbins and then plied them

That was interesting. I am a quite new spinner so I thought 2 ply - 3ply what's the difference. Judith MacKenzie McCuin was showing us 2- 3 -4 and 5 ply at Madrona without missing a beat. Must be easy. Anyways it is a little more difficult than 2 ply but do-able by a new spinner as you can see and worth the effort.

I knit my sock from a Toe Up pattern here and got a nice sock. My sock is 48 stitches for foot and leg.

I am still spinning the yarn for the second sock.

I have the kits on sale at here. So if you are a spinner/knitter these are fun to make.

Pattern Subscriptions from Louet

This just opened - a new pattern subscription service from Louet. I love Louet yarns and their patterns so I subscribed this morning. So far I have downloaded 4 patterns I just love. There are 2 free patterns to give an idea of what their patterns are like. I love the Eurobag and I have ordered some kits for the store. I plan to make one as soon as the yarn comes in. Wouldn't make a very good knitting bag unless it was lined but it would certainly be a good grocery bag or beach bag.
If you do subscribe make sure you mentioned Fun Knits referred you. They have an incentive bonus for retailers.
In news from the store. Things are quite busy as usual getting last minute things ready for the retreat. We still have lots of room at the retreat if you have been thinking about coming but were worried it's too late. Give us a call at the store Tues - Sat 10am - 5pm Pacific time
1-250-285-2751

Spring Knitting Retreat

It is that time again. I can't believe how fast this retreat came. In 31/2 weeks we are having our Spring Knitting Retreat. I will be sending out information packets and Ferry tickets to everyone registered this week.
Anyone interested in coming please sign up soon. So far there is still space available in all of the 5 classes. We have only 1 triple room left, but lots of double and single rooms. As part of this years retreat we will be giving out a goody bag with some fun things to make. We will be having an amazing sale on Friday night at the store. I have been in business for a while now and there is some great yarns that need to get cleared out. I am saving those for this sale night. You will get a list of the sale yarns whe you arrive.
Classes all day Saturday -
Saturday night Holli Yeoh of Bees Knees Knits will be our guest speaker. We are going to have a mini fashion show - mini only because the models are going to be little. This will be fun. Holli will be talking about how she became a knitwear designer, designing children’s clothes and what inspires her.
By the way I put in my order for great weather for that weekend so we can dry our hand dyed yarn in the sun.
So if you haven't signed up yet it's time to do it. See you real soon!!

Fiberfest was amazing

We are back from Fibrefest and I will need a few days to recover from it. I sold tons of yarn and fleece. It was a lot of fun. It was great to see old friends and make new friends. I love to meet people I only know from internet sales. It is nice to put a face on a name and get to know the person a bit. I must say I was so busy at this event that the first picture I got of the booth was while we were tearing it down. It was a nice booth and I loved the set up this year so I am sorry I didn't get pictures.

I sold loads of Kauni (I sold out of EQ again) and sock yarn and lots of fleece. The sock kits were a real hit and will be available on the internet this week. I will blog when they are available.

Megan and family came out to see the festival and go to the midway that was in town and then help us tear down the booth. Meika was very cute and seriously helped with packing.

I'm off again

I am going to be at Fibrefest International in Abbotsford at the Ag-Rec Centre, Abbotsford Exhibition Park32470 Haida Drive, Friday, March 7th from 10 am to 8 pm andSaturday, March 8th from 9 am to 5 pm. I am bringing lots af great yarn and fibre to sell.









I will have all the new sock yarn and lots of fibre for spinning. We have a new sock kit called Licorice Allsorts Socks by Mary Tanti. They are so much fun to knit. They are knit with 4 yarns and stripe easily if you follow her formula. The heel is amazing, it actually looks like the little candy covered allsorts. These kits will be available on the internet store once I get back from Fibrefest.

I also have new kits for the Warm and Fuzzy socks. Another new kit is the Fun Spun Socks. This is 5 different fibres in shades from light to dark and once the fibre is spun and plyed the knit sock shade from one colour to the next. They are really fun to make. More infor to follow about the Fun Spun Sock kits.
If you can make it to Abottsford - Stop by and say Hi.
The store will be open the usual hours. Mom and Dad are working tomorrow and Sat. and Deb will be there Thursday and Friday

Changes for the better

I have been trying to get information put up on the new web site and I have run into a few problems so I think I found a way around this.

1st - The Free patterns are now here and linked everywhere. - many more patterns will show up as I get time to put them on. I have had a lot of requests for the ones I posted.

2nd - The downloadable patterns are now here. Many more to come soon. Mary Tanti our resident designer has so many cool patterns coming. I can't keep up with her.

3rd - The knitting retreat information is now in an easier format to look at. If anyone wants to pay for the retreat with paypal. I will send you an invoice.

I have a list of these links at the top of each new page and also on the web site

Madrona

Feast your eyes on this amazing knitting by Lucy Neatby, Kathryn Alexander and Ruth Sorensen. This is what I was surrounded by this last week at Madrona

It was just amazing. I am so inspired by the talented people I met and the level of dedication people have to the fibre industry in all aspects from the sheep to the finished garment. I am in awe.

I will tell you my highlights of the retreat and I am sure I will go into more detail as the year goes on. Information like I gained this week will be with me forever.

My favorite part of the retreat was meeting and taking classes with Judith MacKenzie McCuin. She has devoted her life to preserving fibre breed animals and spinning. She is a wealth of information and I beleive I could be in a year long workhop with her and realize at the end how much I still need to learn.

I am going to be a better spinner for the classes I took with her. I learned how to set up my wheel, how to spin worsted and ply up to 5 plys. I spun a fabulous skein of Bison yarn, I spun novelty yarn and she taught me the basics of how to spin sock yarn.

It was wonderful to meet Ruth Sorensen, she is the designer of the Kauni cardigan. I got to visit with Stephanie Pearl McPhee and Lucy Neatby. Lucy gave a wonderful talk on Friday night about her inspiration for her patterns.

The market place was amazing and yes I did buy yarn beleive it or not. I bought some Blue Moon sock yarn. It is very nice yarn. I also bought some great fibre from Dizzy Ewe. This fibre is going to turn into a sock.

These kits will be available soon from Fun Knits

Stay tuned for my spinnning progress on my first pair of socks.

Going to Madrona

Today the store is closing at 2:30 sorry if anyone is inconvienced by that - But what can I do I have to go the Madrona

I am leaving for a great week off. I am going to Madrona Fiberfest in Tacoma Washington. I am taking 3 classes. On Thursday and Friday I an taking Hand Coverings: The Art of Mittens and Gloves with Nancy Bush and Judith MacKenzie McCuin.
On Sat I am taking Wild Texture with Judith MacKenzie McCuin and on Sunday I am taking Exploring Color for Entrelac Knitting with Kathryn Alexander.
Can you imagine how much fun this is going to be. I am really excited. I am all packed and am leaving today on the 3pm ferry . We are spending the night in Naniamo and then Mary my friend who I am going with is meeting me and we will set off on the 10:15 ferry from Duke Point.
My Mom and Dad will be working at the store on Wed and Sat. and Deb will be here Thurs. and Fri.

The Web site will be chaging before your eyes for the next few weeks. I have a wondeful couple from Cortez working on it. Cortez Island is one island away from Quadra Island.
It is going to be an awesome web site soon.

New Look

I have been working on the new website and added the Knitting Retreat information. This took me hours to get it right and it still isn't how I want it. If anyone wants to register by mail just email me and I will email you the registration form so you don't have to print the entire psge to get it.
I now know how beginner knitters feel when they get a new pattern and it doesn't make sense at all. A lot of new language to learn and concepts to grasp. The new web site is much like this and I am a beginner.
Because the web site was down for a while I have extended the deadline for registration to March 15th so if you are interested in registering please do so as it is filling up quickly. All of the workshops still have a few spaces left but not many.
I decided that the blog needed a new look too. I wish my new website program was as easy as blogger is to use. It was a pleasure to change the look of my blog. Hope you like the new look.

Next I need to figure out how to get the patterns back on the web site.

Crafty Arts

My neighbour store is Hummingbird Office anf Arts Supply. I spend a lot of time in there buying store supplies getting photo copies etc. I notcied they have a weekend of fun planned this weekend and they still have room if you want to register.

Here is the info

Four classes in one day

Held at Heriot Bay Inn on Quadra Island
- Learn to do lovely lettering
- Explore the art of watercolour
- Design with fabric pastels
- Create fun original cards

Sat Feb 9th - 9 am - 5 pm
Cost for all day $115. plus tax
This includes lunch

If you want to make a night of it you can stay at Heriot Bay Inn on Saturday night for an extra $30. - great deal
Call 285-3334 for more details or to register.
This sounds like fun - I would go if I didn't have to work in the store.

Want to see some perfect knitting

Perfect knitting - look at the even stitches, perfect seaming, and a perfect fit.

This is the first sweater my daughter a relatively new knitter ever knit. She is way btter at seaming than I am. Now I know where to send my UFO's to get finished.

I am quite impressed with her knitting ability and had to be a proud Mom and share.

Meika loves her new sweater.

New Web Site

This has been an up and down weekend for the new web site. Yesterday every 2nd time I went to work on it the old site was back again. It seems today the new site is there for good. I actually miss my old site. It was so easy to work on. I will learn my way around this site fairly soon. It has sooooooo much more to offer. I was going to work on it a lot today but I think my brain needs a rest so I will knit today.

Yesterday I had a really interesting day at the store. A young family came in and they all knit. Mom and Dad and an 11 year old boy and a 9 year old girl. They were on Quadra for the weekend and wanted a knitting project. Guess what they all choose - socks. They are all fairly beginner knitters but all of them picked up knitting on double pointed needles quite quickly.

It was such a pleasure to teach this young family to knit socks. I hope to see more of them and their new socks.

I am getting very excited to go to Madrona Fibre festival. I will leave Feb. 13. I am taking a lot of classes there and can't wait.
This is what I am taking at Madrona

Thursday and Friday, all day - Nancy Bush and Judith MacKenzie McCuin: Hand Coverings: The Art of Mittens and Gloves

Saturday morning - Judith MacKenzie McCuin: Wild Texture

Sunday, all day - Kathryn Alexander: Exploring Color for Entrelac Knitting

I will be very busy for the 4 days of lessons but I think it will be very fun

Coming Soon

Fun Knits has a new Web site. Same address just a new look. Sometime over the weekend when you go to funknits.com it will look very different.
Ever since I opened this store I have been searching for a shopping cart that would reduce inventory in real time so people would actually know how much yarn I have available. I also wanted a shopping cart that would intigrated with my physical store so I could sell everything from one location. Well I found it and it should go live this weekend. I have a lot of work to do on it but please bear with me. New stock will be loaded daily until it is all loaded.
It has been a logistical nightmare to say the least to keep everything straight between the real store and the internet store. The kind people who helped me do inventory this year could see that by how out my stock count was.
So the Web Store may be not working for a few days, but soon it will be so much better.

Meika's first sweater from her Mom

My daughter Megan is knitting her first sweater for her daughter Meika. She ran out of wool this weekend so I had to mail her more yarn real quick. She was so excited to see how the sweater was turning out that she blocked it and sewed it together then tried it on Meika while it is still on the needles.

I remember trying sweaters on my kids when they were little while still on the needles. I probably tried several on Megan.

Maybe my Mom tried sweaters on us still on the needles. I will have to ask her.

The cute sweater is knit with Jo Sharp Aran Silkroad 85% Wool, 10% Silk & 5% Cashmere. It is really soft and will be nice and warm for Meika once the hood is finished. The pattern is the hooded sweater in the Debbie Bliss book Special Knits. She altered the pattern a bit (just like I always do) she knit a different cuffs and bottom.

I wonder if Meika will knit sweaters for her kids and try them on while still on the needles. She will think that is absolutely normal. It certainly is in our family. Stay tuned for the finished sweater picture. Megan should get the yarn tomorrow.

The store is closed today

Sorry for any inconveinience this causes but the store is closed today. We will reopen on Tuesday

Spinners

Here are a couple of pictures from our Tuesday morning spinning. In the first picture Diane is proudly showing us her 1st hand spun yarn. Really nice yarn I know mine was a lot lumpier than that. She also makes great little coil baskets. Roz is spinning like a pro and Vyvyan is our fabulous teacher. She helped me learn to spin different fibres this week. So I spent my morning spinning silk, baby camel and cashmere. She will be teaching spinning at the retreat in April.

Carol is in the other picture. She has really taken to spinning also.

Now do you want to hear a crazy story about a fluke knitting injury. I was very relaxed on Sunday knitting socks while I was working with my special needs son. All of a sudden I realized I forgot to do something important with him and I threw my knitting down and jumped up and jammed the bamboo knitting needle 1 1/2" into my foot between my big toe and the next one.

I am sorry I don't have a picture for you as I didn't want to hop upstairs to get my camera with my knitting stuck in my foot. You could see the needle in there. It was quite gross.

It was really hard to pull the needle out as it was stuck so far in my foot. Boy did that ever hurt. I broke the needle too. It was a 3mm needle. Ouch. It is fine now. Yesterday it hurt to wear shoes and I went to the Dr. - She was worried about Tetanus and infection so I got a shot and now I have a sorer arm. I guess I need to wear steel toe boots to knit or be much more careful wear I throw my knitting down.

My foot feels much better today. I am really getting lots of socks knit. I have 4 pair done now and many more to do.

Will post sock pictures later

Chanking out socks

I do believe I have the adult version of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) when it comes to sock knitting. I can manage to knit a pair but it takes many socks before I get a pair knit. I guess I get bored with one colour. I have knit all of these socks since Dec 20th. I started with the pair for my husband the Briggs and Little pair that are actually complete , just need the ends sewn in and washed.

Then when we did inventory at the store I got the sock knitting bug quite bad and wanted to knit all of the sock yarn in the store.

I am enjoying knitting the Opal 6ply right now. The socks go quite quickly and I love the colours.

So for now I have 1 1/2 pairs of Opal 1714 - hope to be done those today. 2 socks of Opal 1713 a big one and a little one, a little sock in Zebra and 1/2 a little one in Opal 1710. I also have a pair of Warm and Fuzzy socks out of Opal red Prisma and red lace weight mohair 1/2 done. Lets see if I can finish all these pairs before I cast on a new one.

Sock yarn order

I am finally posting the pictures of my nice sock yarn section in the store. After inventory I sorted out all the sock yarn. I put like families together and I put up more shelves so I can display it better. Before it looked like a sea of colour and no order at all.

You may notice 2 empty bins. Those are waiting for Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn. I am hoping it will come soon. I will move something so they get a top bin.

I also got my shipment of Kauni so I now have all the colours in stock on the web site. This batch of EQ looks extra bright.

Note to myself. I must straighten up the top 2 shelves of Kauni.

A Huge Thank You

A Huge Thank you to all the wonderful people who came to the Inventory counting party yesterday. We had a great bunch of people counting. There were 10 of us all together. Everyone had a good time, got a lot of work done and won some great prizes. We ate very good Pizza when it was over. We got about 80% of the store counted. It looks like a bomb went off in the store. Yarn is everywhere. Tomorrow we will finish counting and put it all back where it belongs.
While we had all of the yarn out of the back room, my husband was busy building floor to ceiling shelves. They are wonderful and my back room will look so good now. I might even be able to find what I need when I need it now.
I will be happy to get this job finished.
I spent most of my time yesterday with Brenda and Stella helping count sock yarn. We have a lot of sock yarn. Really a lot. I also have 46 KG of Kauni. I know that thanks to Shannon.
Hopefully I will get this all done in time to reopen on Wed, Jan 2 if not please excuse the mess...

Fun, Food and Family

All the ingredients for a great Christmas - Fun. food and family. We had a great time.

First we put the Meika to work baking. She is making a pie for Grandpa here. Then we got the place all ready for Christmas. The Kauni stocking was filled with loot for Meika.

Christmas morning everyone got lots of presents and the kids all had fun. Then amongst the Christmas mess Meika painted a picture for me.

Mom made Megan a cute sweater for Christmas. It was the one on the cover of Cast on Magazine for fall. She loved it so mom knit it for her with Eco knits cotton. She loves it and it looks great on her.

I gave mom a Kauni felted hat and a 1/4 finished cashmere scarf. She loved both. The scarf will be done soon.

My son got his hat still on the needles too but I finished it during the day. Meika's sweater also got finished during the day and she wore it home on Boxing day.

It turned out really cute. Both the hat for my son and the sweater for Meika are my handspun so I am very happy with both of them

Day 1 of my SALE

Today was great and lots of sock yarn and novelty yarn found new homes. I have sooo much yarn it is amazing. To think I started this a few years ago with a few extra balls of yarn and sold them on eBay. I guess you could say my yarn passion got out of hand. Well I wouldn't have it any other way. The store is fun, I have met lots of great people and introduced a lot of people to knitting and a few to spinning.
Anyways the reason for my post. I still have tons (literally) of yarn to sell. If you can't come in give me a call 1-250-285-2751 10 am - 5pm or email me shelmack@telus.net with your order and I will call you.
The Sock yarn that is 40% off is Gedifra, Opal Element, Prisma and Rodeo, Regia Loop the rest is 25% off.

HUGE Clearance Sale

Fun Knits is having a HUGE Clearance sale Dec. 20, 21 and 22. This is to reduce our stock before inventory. So come on in and do your part. Stock up on yarn. Send in your friends/ partners to buy you presents!!!

Everything in the store will be 10% off
All sock yarn and novelty will be 25% off. Some of the sock yarns and novelty yarns will be up to 40% off.

Or else come in and buy yourself a nice Christmas present. Yarn, books, needles.

I will be taking phone orders from out of town shoppers 10 am - 5 pm Pacific time. 1-250-285-2751 or email me your order and phone # and I will call you.

Inventory Counting Party

Fun Knits will be closed Dec 23 - Jan 2. We will be counting Inventory. I decided we will have an inventory counting party on Saturday Dec 29th from Noon - 6pm. This will be quite funand very helpful for me. We will have prizes to give out every hour (some of them are huge) and after we are done counting I will treat you all to Pizza at the Lovin Oven.
Let me know if you want to come and play with yarn I mean count yarn, I will put your name down.

As for counting inventory - its not that bad. I just give you a list and point you to where to count. Knitter's are pretty good at counting.

Fun Knits Spring Knitting Retreat

Fun Knits Spring Knitting Retreat is now ready to take registrations. This retreat is going to be great. We have 5 different workshops to take. Go to the Website and read all about them. From all the interest at the last retreat I think this one will fill up quickly so don't be disappointed and register soon.
Since it is Christmas and we are all broke I will take a $100 deposit to hold your place and your workshop of choice. Final payment is due before March 1, 2008.
The deposits can only be taken over the phone 1-250-285-2751 during store hours Tues - Sat 10am - 5pm Pacific time. 0r buy paying with paypal to shelmack@telus.net and please include all your details.
I can't do the deposit on the web page. Believe me I had enough trouble making the Internet registration page work without trying to attempt that too.
This would make a great Christmas present for yourself!!!

The store looks Christmasy

We have 2 trees in the store and they are both decorated with all knit items. The window is decorated with our knitting Santa and some nice knitted items. The counter is decorated with some great new hand dyed yarn waiting for labels. It even looks like Christmas.

I play Christmas music all day so I am sure in the Christmas spirit this year.

Felted Kauni Hat

I just finished another hat in EQ. I like it even better than the first one.

Here is my new free pattern on the web site for Kauni yarn left overs. The hat only takes 50 gr each of 2 colours of yarn. I have knit this with EM and EZ held together.

It was so huge when I was done knitting it that it covered my entire face. Once I felted it the hat fits great. You can't even imagine how soft and fluffy this yarn gets when it is felted. I am making another one now out of EQ. I started it with purple and red and both colours will change so it shoul;d make an interesting effect.

Weather !!!! and Spinning

Look what we are in for today. We usually get a wind warning or a rainfall warning but today we are getting a snow, rain and wind warning. I am not going out the door. A very good day to stay in and knit. This has been the worst weather weekend. First we got about 60 cm of snow, now it has just started freezing rain on top of that and I can't wait until the winds hit. The trees will snap like twigs with all the ice and snow on them.

I have taken up spinning and I just love it. I have improved in the last few month going from chunky novelty yarn to yarn I can actually knit with. I am making a sweater for Meika for Christmas. The fleece is Northern Lights by Louet. It is merino wool and is dyed with in very short repeats so when you spin it, the yarn gets tweedy. I love it. It is wonderful fibre you can spin it right out of the bag. I have ordered some more and will carry this fibre in the store and online soon.

I am knitting the Essential Baby Cardigan by Lisa Henderson. As you can see I have taken a few liberties with the pattern. I wanted a pullover as Meika has a lot of cardigans and I wanted cables as a design at the raglan shaping. The picture doesn't show the cables very well but the show up nicely.

This is quite a nice pattern. It is written for 3 weights of yarn and size newborn to 3 years old. I already knit this pattern out of Noro for a friend's baby and the sweater turned out great.

I love knitting with this hand spun. It's almost like I know the yarn since I have spent so much time with it, spinning it then plying it.

I just wish I had more time.

Wow just as I was writing this post the snow plow came by. We might even be able to drive our van home today. It has been stuck at the store since Saturday.

We are Closed today

Sorry - Today the shop is closed. There are about 6 reasons why I can't open the shop today and 4 of them are due to the SNOW. We have about 3" on the ground and lots more to come.

Yesterday's sale went great. I heard from lots of internet people - fun to talk to customer's from far away on the phone. The in store sale went great too and the sock yarn supply is somewhat depleted. I think a lot of people are getting socks this Christmas.

The store looks very Christmasy. Mom and Dad came over for the evening and we ate Pizza and drank tea. It was lovely.
I guess I have time to knit today. I am knitting about 5 projects. 3 socks, 1 lace scarf, 1 top down sweater for Meika knit with my handspun yarn. What shall I work on first...... off to knit