Spring Retreat cancelled

We have decided to cancel the spring retreat at the end of April. We didn't have a guest presenter anyways. Linda and I both felt with my 3 new grand babies all due March and April I would be a little busy.  Sorry if this is dissapointing for anyone but the fall retreat with Sally Melville is Sept 29 - Oct 2 so mark your calendars and keep that weekend free. More details on this retreat in the next few weeks. I just know it will be a great retreat.

I am busily weaving for Christmas presents right now, and once Christmas is over I will start weaving baby blankets.
I have also been knitting lots of socks. I spent a lot of time in hospital with my sister before she died and got several pairs ( yes I said pairs) of socks finished.
After Christmas I need to make 2 more baby sheep sweaters and hats. I am just waiting for the next ultra sound of the twins to see if they are boys, girls or 1 of each.

A Sad Post

Many of you who know me, know my sister Judy has been battling a brain tumor for the last 8 years. She passed away yesterday peacefully. Judy used to love knitting scarves. She was the best customer of novelty yarn I think we ever had. She was 54 only 13 months younger than me. I will sure miss her but I am glad she isn't suffering anymore.

Spinning Retreat

The fun never ends at Fun Knits. This year we were invited to be the vendor for the North Island Spinning retreat held at Kingfisher Spa. It was so much fun. We spent the entire time there selling fibre spinning and eating fabulous food.  Lynne Anderson from Knitopia in White Rock came and gave a wonderful demonsration on spinning on various spindles. It was so wonderful and inspiring I bought a set of Russian spindles. Four of us bought these spindle sets and spent a lot of one morning leaarning how to work them. It is quite tricky but we all managed. Lynne also gifted me a wonderful little support spindle for spinning cotton. I love using it. It was great to get back to spinning as I haven't done much in the last year. Below are the pictures I took at the retreat. There was about 30 people there and lots of yarn was produced in the 2 days we were there.



Lynne teaching how to use many forms of spindles.



Linda plying her first handspun with the help of Vyvyan



We set up shop in the middle of the room.

My new Russian Spindle set and cashmere fibre

Even the spiders were in the spinning mood at Kingfisher

Maiwa Workshop

As many of you know I am learning to weave and I have taken several workshops with Jane Stafford but this workshop was the ultimate. I learned so much I don't know where to begin sharing this experience. Firstly the location. The Maiwa loft on Granville Island. We were in this room surrounded by one of a kind, hand woven, hand dyed, sewn, quilted fabric, wonderful wooden book cases full of every imaginable book on every form of fibre art, Trinkets - wooden block stamps, leather bags. It really set the mood for the course. There were 12 students and 12 looms in this room. It was fantastic to say the least.

Little displays of stuff everywhere you looked



We were surrounded by amazing fabric

Bookcases full of books from around the world about everything fibre

More trinkets

We spent a lot of time every morning examing fabulous weaving to see how they did it. This was so much fun

Finding your Zen
2/16 cotton 24 epi. 24ppi
this was an exercize in fine tuning our weaving

We learned how to make Double weave fabric with a horizontal join, Cording, Double width fabric, Fringe on 4 sides with an inlay and interior fringe, Denting with Elastic silk and Finding your Zen.

All of these are woven on 4 shaft table looms. We all wove samples of each of these weave structures.

I still have the fringe one on my loom to do at home as I didn't have time to finish it there.

For non weavers reading this post epi means ends per inch (the amount of ends of yarn on the loom in an inch) and ppi means picks per inch ( the amount of you weave in an inch).


Denting with Silk Elastic
12g Bamboo 20 epi, 20 ppi



Double width
2/18 Zephyr wool and silk
16epi. 16 ppi on each layer

Cording
2/60 silk
40epi, 40 ppi
My sample is 36 ppi



DoubleWeave horizontal join
12 g bamboo
24 epi, 24 ppi on each layer



                                                                                      

Hand-dyed Yarn makes me Happy

Seriously, dyeing yarn makes me very happy. I have finished my striped socks from the yarn I dyed in the summer, and I love them! The yarn is super comfy (80% merino, 20% nylon) knit up, and the colours make me giggle. Now that I've mastered the stripe - who knows what's next?!

Babies this Spring

Remember a few blog posts ago I knit the baby sheep sweater for my new grand baby coming in the spring. A few weeks ago my son and his wife announced they were having a baby in May, so that makes 2 babies coming this spring. We were very excited about this and then last weekend I found out there will be 3 babies this spring. My son and his wife are expecting TWINS. Now my Mom has retired from knitting so I quickly phoned her and told her she is out of retirement cause I need help. That is a lot of babies to knit for. I plan to knit 2 more baby sheep sweaters a few hats and socks for each of them and weave them each a blanket. Wow this is so exciting.

We will have 4 Grandkids come spring.
In other news I cast on my Venus Rising sweater last weekend. I am knitting it with EY my favourite colours( purple, burgundy and pink) I will post pictures when I get a chance.
This week I am off to a workshop by Jane Stafford -  Weaving in the Maiwa Tradition- I can't wait.
Shelley

Here is the first picture of the twins. We don't have a picture of Megan and Zach's baby yet.

Retreat Sunday Oct 3

(This is Shelley's post, with help from Kate at home to upload the pictures.)

The project for this retreat - the teddy bear sweater version of Lucy Neatby's Venus Rising Sweater.

Samples of Lucy Neatby's projects

Soaking up the knitting information!

HI Everyone from the retreat. This is an amazing retreat. I have been a knitter for about 50 years now, yes I started very young!! and I learned more this weekend than I have ever learned about knitting. Even simple things like counting your rows. Lucy has an amazing knowledge of knitting and design. Her approach to knitting and her descriptions of the family of stitches ex - the parent stitches and the grand parent stitches, the public and the private side of the knitting and many mores descriptions that make the knitting come alive and make you want to treat your knitting with much more respect.

We have many comments from retreat participants and lots of pictures to share with you but first this is what Lucy had to say:

I'm writing this whilst listening to the Pacific waves lapping on the shores of Quadra Island (just off Campbell River on Vancouver Island). Shelley and Linda, the Fun Knits team, are hosting a delightful knitting camp at Tsa-Kwa-Luten lodge.
I've just returned from an eye-popping show and tell. It's always a joy to see the fruits of the needles of ardent knitters. Many,various and breathtaking would be my brief description, but hardly does the pieces justice (but forgive me, it is late in the day). Thus far we've had two challenging days of wrestling with copious short rows, long circular needles and triple strand Navaho knitting, which is all now beginning to yield results in the form of a multitude of scantily dressed teddies, now clad in at least the first half of their future Venus Rising Cardigans.We are hoping for decency in apparel tomorrow!

Happy stitches and stitchers all.
Lucy Neatby

Here are some comments from other retreat participants:

It's wonderful
Jery

Great day wonderful retreat
Peg


Blow out
Jean

Totally wonderful
Donna

Better than I ever imagined
Jane

What a great retreat - super place, super people, super knitting
Thanks Fun Knits
Mary



I have forged a new relationship with my stitches I want only happy stitches, no strangulation, or internation incidents, with their australian cousins down under - Yes you really needed to be here to understand this comment. It is fabulous.
Linda C

The retreat is amazing and so intense. My head is full of great knitting ideas and new approaches to old knitting ideas.
I will always strive for contented stitches.
Shelley

Baby Sheep Sweater

This is a really cute sweater I couldn't resist making when I found out I was going to be a grandma again. I thought the grand child of a yarn shop owner should be dressed in a soft superwash pure merino wool sweater with little sheep on it. It also has little sheep buttons. The designer of the pattern Jennifer Little allowed us to use her great pattern for the kits. We are selling these kits  in the store and on the web site. They are selling fast.

One neat feature about this little sweater is knit on 5.5mm needles and with chunky yarn this will fit a 5 year old very nicely. Meka really wanted a sweater just like her new baby brother or sisters sweater. Meika's sweater needs another arm and button bands then it is finished. I will post a picture of her wearing it. You will have to wait until March to see the new arrival wearing his or her sweater. For now the store bear is wearing it.

Important Retreat Info

A quick note from Shelley regarding the fall retreat:

Due to a situation beyond our control the retreat dates with Lucy Neatby have changed by one day. It will now be from Oct 1 – 4 instead of Sept 30 – Oct 3. I realize this may cause problems for some of you. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you and will do what we can to help you attend these dates. Please contact us to confirm your attendance for these dates.

This will be a great retreat and we are looking forward to seeing you.

Stripes

Got my sock yarn dyed today, after untangling a mess I created trying to make a really long skein. All sorted now, and drying on the rack.

Koolaid Fun

Had a great time dyeing yarn today ....

..... here's a sneak peak at my silk lace weight.

Picking Blackberries

About a year ago I was at the store when a new order of Araucania Ranco Multy came in. The colourways were all stunning, but one in particular caught my attention. It reminded me immediately of blackberry picking, as it has all the dark and light purples in it that your fingers get stained with when picking.

I brought it home with me that day, and kept it in the back of my mind as I looked at various small shawls. Finally it told me it wanted to be a Multnomah shawl (a free pattern from Hello Knitty), and I accommodated it.

This is a really quick knit, and fun to work. It took just under one skein (about 20 yards left over) which was perfect. I think it will get a lot of wear in the fall.

Sun Hat

This week on the store website we are featuring Shelley's cotton sun hat pattern on the front page. While I was camping recently I decided to knit one. I could only find a 3.75 mm needle, instead of the recommended 3.5 mm, but as I am tight knitter I wasn't too concerned. My yarn of choice was opal Petticoat cotton.

I omitted the yarn over row after the picot hem, but otherwise followed directions as written. Love the pattern, and the hat is really cute. This was a quick, fun knit!

Warping in the warm summer breeze....

I went over to Shelley's a couple of days ago and there she was ~ barefoot and blissed-out, in her front yard, wrapping some strands of heather green yarn around her warping mill.  She looked calm and happy, doing what she does best -- anything with fibre!

And this is what she saw when she lifted her eyes from the wool. Hard to see it from this photo but the ocean was in her view, and it was lovely, as was the weather ~ sweet and summery. 

More wedding pictures

Bill a very proud Dad walked Megan the beautiful bride down the path.

Zachary and his party arrive by canoe

Meika and Shanti were very cute flower girls, they threw rose petal on the path. Shanti is wearing a small version of the silk woven shawl and Meika is wearing fairy wings.

They exchanged lovely vows they wrote themselves

The happy lovely married couple.

Zachary and Megan Zamisky

June 19,2010

May you both always be this happy

Perfect Wedding

The weather was perfect, the wedding was perfect and beautiful. Being the Mother of the bride I did shed a few tears. What a great day. Here are some early pictures. These are all sent to cell phones the better pictures will come later. Megan is wearing the silk shawl I wove her in some of the pictures.

Store is closing early on Saturday June 19

The store is closing early on Saturday June 19 for a very good reason. We will be closing at 1 pm on Sat as my daughter is getting married and we are all going to the wedding. I will show pictures after the wedding it should be great. Pray for good weather for us as it is an outdoor wedding.
I wove my Megan, Meika and theMaid of honor silk and rayon shawl for the wedding and will show pictures after the wedding.
Shelley

Cotton Stretch

We posted about the store's Cotton Stretch yarns on the website this week, and it got me to thinking about the last of a skein I have hanging around, left over from my socks.

To me, the stretch of this yarn lends itself perfectly to a headband. I'm just playing around with stitches and needle size, thinking I'll graft it at the ends.

I definitely love this yarn (Patons Stretch Sock in kelp colourway) for the slight stretch on it, and it should be perfect for a headband, so I'll keep you posted how this turns out.

Spinning Workshop

We are pleased to pass along some information for a great spinning workshop this spring. Here are the details:

Exotic Fibres Spinning Workshop

May 30 & June 6, 2010

Instructor: Vyvyan Dorsett

2 Day workshop - 5 hrs each day for 2 Sundays

10am to 4pm

Fee: $100 plus $25 for materials

Learn to spin Cultivated Silk tops, Silk bell, Silk Hankie, Soy

Silk, Bamboo, Cashmere and Cotton

Bring a Bag Lunch

Workshop location on Quadra

Materials List:

Materials fee $25.00

Spinning wheel and oil

Scarf for lap (silk if possible in a dark shade with no pattern)

3 empty bobbins

lazy kate

You can contact the store for more information, and can pay Vyvyan at the workshop.

Leftover Pi

I've wanted to knit a Pi shawl for a few years now. I've done a baby blanket based on the Pi formula (double your stitches every time you double your rows) but it wasn't lace.

The 10 shawls in 2010 challenge seemed like a good time to make my Pi. I've picked some stitch patterns from my stitch books that work in the round and fit into the stitch counts and row counts of each section. I'm loving working on it!

The yarn is left over from three other projects. I'm using Sweatermaker Lace, Luxury Baby Alpaca Lace and Fiddlesticks Lace. I thought the colours went together well, and together they give me about 1,000 metres. I may come up a little short and need to get some lace weight in a complementary colour for an edging, but at least I will have used up these three lone skeins in my cupboard!