Opal Saphir coming later this week

I am excited about this new yarn coming from Opal. I should get it this week. It is a Opal Saphir and is a Sport weight yarn. Much quicker knit that the 6 ply or sock yarn yet the same great self patterning. It is available in 4 colours. All the colours are similar to the rodeo collection. I will give more detail once I actually see it and feel it. I can't wait.

Uni 2005 Colours and what they match

I was at the store on Wednesday night and instead of doing things I should have been doing I decided to colour match the new 2005 Uni to other sock yarns. I get a lot of requests for which colours match when people are buying yarn for the Bees Knees patterns. Buying yarn over the internet is hard when you can't actually hold the yarn and compare colours for yourself. These colour matches are just my opinion but I do have a good eye for colour. I have also put and * beside the colour matchI like the best.

Uni Gold - 1268
Sprintime -1220
Element 1073
Rodeo 1150
Online Caribbean 733* and 732

Uni Light Brown -1262
Prisma Rust
Rodeo 1154
Rainforest Owl*
Regia Cotton 4082, 4085
Regia Canadain 4731, 4730
Regia Brazil 5479

Uni Mauve - 1265
Opal Cotton 1173
Petticoat
Regia Canadian 4730, 4732*

Light Blue - 1267
Regia Cotton 4075
Petticoat
Regia Canadian 4726, 4727*

Teal - 1264
Regia Cotton 4075, 4081, 4086
Regia Jubilee 5465
Regia Canadain 4726
Online Sierra 581*

Rust - 1260
Prisma Rust
Regia Cotton 4079
Regia Canadain 4732
Online Sierra 580*, 581

Dark Brown - 1261
Regia Cotton 4082, 4085, 4079
Online Sierra 579
Mosiak Brown 1117
Regia Brazil 5485, 5482, 5477
Regia Canadian 4735* , 4732, 4733, 4734
Online Caribbean 732

Dark Blue - 1269
Regia Cotton 4086, 4084
Regia Brazil 5477, 5486
Online Caribbean 735, 739*
Prisma Navy 1194
Online Sierra 582

Lime Green - 1266
Online Caribbean 737, 732*
Rainforest Chameleon
Regia Canadain 4735

I have missed the medium brown and will update later when I get time.
I hope this helps with the colour selections. It was fun to do. If I get time on Saturday I will colour match the older Uni colours too. I will put this info on my web site if it ever gets back to normal.

And the Winner is -

Zebra
When Rainforest Collection first came out I wonder which yarn would be most popular and I thought it would be parrot but it turns out it was Zebra, Tiger is the next most popular. I have 1 skein left and then it is gone. The other colors are selling fast too. There is a second printing of the Rainforest in production right now but won't be here for a few months. I actually didn't like the Zebra sock yarn so it just shows I don't have popular taste. Since I have made a pair of each color so far my favorite is the Flamingo it really has a feathery look to it. My second favorite is the Parrot. I guess I am a bird lover when it comes to the sock yarn. I made several pair of Owl socks and they are very nice too. I just don't like brown for me. I made a pair for my Dad and he loves them.
I have been knitting like crazy but nothing finished to report. The schools in BC are still on strike so I am home everyday with my special needs son. It is going OK but I am really busy. He is learning to walk with a walker so we have had a lot of chance to practice this week. Yestreday he took 11 steps on his own in the walker. For anyone who doesn't follow the blog, he is 17 years old and we have been working on walking since he was about 10 so this is huge. I really beleive someday he will walk.
The store was fun on Wed. We put a big display of scarves in the window. I have been working on scarves as store samples for weeks now on Sat. I will get some pictures. Scarves are fun to knit.

Pictures of Meika

Well I wouldn't be a normal Grandma if I didn't show pictures of my Grandchild. So here are some pictures.

The first one is Megan and Meika. Two happy girls. Meika is 4 months old now and very fun. She is a really good baby and laughs and smiles all the time.

This picture is Meika in her Noro Silk Garden sweater. It is still huge on her but the sleeves roll up ok. It should fit her a while. She has learned a new tongue game and it is so cute. She worked so hard to learn this. She learned while she was visiting and has it perfected now.

Now on to the next item. The LLama yarn. These are the colours the llama merino wool blend are in. The blend is 80% llama and 20% merino wool.

I am making a pair of socks with the LLama angora. They are so soft and warm. These will be my favorite socks when it gets cold. It is hard to get a good picture to show just how fuzzy these are. I love them. I was thinking about giving them to someone as a Christmas gift but I think I will give them to me.

As for the rest of my knitting. I have parked the Bravo baby sweater for a few weeks while working on the Batik shawl. It is nearly done and will show a picture when it is done. Since I did it in fall colours I should get it done before winter. I need to get back at the Baby Bravo sweater as I want it for Meika for Christmas.

New Opal Yarns

The new Opal 6ply sock and sweater yarn is here and wow are they ever nice. The colours are very rich. I love the red and multi of course.
Also the New 2005 Uni colours are here. There are more earthy colors available now.
Thay are great for trim on the Bees Knees patterns
I am in the process of putting together list of which yarns match. This will be available on my new web site once it is operational. It is coming soon.

Also coming this week will be the Llama and angora or llama and merino wool sock yarn. It is amazing. I am knitting a pair of the llama angora socks right now. The are so warm. You can feel the warmth when knitting them. I will post here once it is all listed.
Had a good week. Megan and Meika were here so got very little else done but play with the baby. Wow is she cute. I will post a picture of her later once I sift through the hundreds of pictures and pick the best. She is so fun to play with now. She turned 4 months old on Friday. The store was great yesterday but it didn't get any pictures.

Into the gold

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all the Canadians who read this. Enjoy your turkey dinner and your friends and family. We are having our turkey tonight and lots of friends and family will be here. Should be fun.

I am into the gold on the Batik shawl. I really like it. I put it on 2 needles to see how big it is plus get a better picture. it is a little over 3 feet wide. I have the rest of the gold to knit and then gold to red. i am knitting ith 2 gold and 1 green now so I am nearly done with the green.

It is taking a lot of yarn I had to get into a 2nd skein f green so i know it will take a 2nd of red and gold too. It feels so nice. I can't wait to finish it. we certainly are having shwal weather here. It was stormy and windy all night. We lost power for a few minutes  so nothing drastic. Living on an island when the power goes out on a holiday weekend you worry.

The store was great on Saturday. I had a young man in who wants a sweater made with the pure Alpaca so I need to make that this week. I am making it on the machine so it should go fairly quickly. I got the back done yesterday. He also wants 2 pair of Owl socks. They are a nice guy colour and will match his sweater well. Mom was at the store all day and it was quite busy. Lots of knitters in needing fall projects.

I bought a swift for the store when it first opened but I have nowhere to put it up at the store. Since I had to wind all that alpaca I brought it home. I was busy doing other things in the bathroom (supervising my son) so this is where I set it up. I had to take a picture as I thought it was funny. Who else winds wool in the bathroom. It worked really well talk about mulit tasking. Well the alpaca is all wound I just need to find time to knit.


My daughter and Meika are coming tomorrow for a few days so I am really looking forward to that.

My son is very busy working on recovering the web site so it looks good again. So hopefully soon when you go to funknits.com it will look good again.

Batik Shawl

When Brenda came to the store last week and I saw her shawl I was very inspired to make one. I was also inspired by the turning leaves to make the shawl in three colours using Opal Batik, red, green and gold. I am just into the green and I can't wait to get into the gold to see how it looks. I am knitting it with 3 strands of Batik held together. I did 20 rows of all red then 20 rows 2 strands red and 1 green, then 20 rows of 2 strands green and 1 red, then 3 green etc. I am pleased with it so far. It is very thick and soft and that was the feel I was looking for. Too bad I have to work and do so much. I wish I could just knit all day and night an get this done. It is nice to knit and is knitting up quite quickly as it is thick yarn with the tree strands held together.

I have been soooooo busy. The kids are out of school in BC as the teachers are on strike and the girl who works for me with my special needs boy is away sick so I have had my boy 24 /7 for the last few days and will have for the next few days too. I know for all you mothers who have kids that seems like, big deal, but with a deafblind very busy teenager that is a big deal. He is doing great right now and is extremely active and wants to be played with all day. He is wearing me out. I was thinking of teaching him to knit. I know other blind knitters. Maybe that is what I will do today with him. My Mom has to work in the store as I will be working at home all day. I hope she has a good day.

 

Shawl fun

I had a great day at the store yesterday. It was busy all day  and I got orders for 2 more sweaters to knit and more socks, so I should be busy this week.

Brenda came to the store and we had a nice visit. It was fairly quiet so we had time for fun. She helped me pick out colours for a sweater that my Mom is going to make me for my birthday. Lucky me. I will post about it once I know for sure the colours I want. Brenda.'s shawl is amazing. It is so soft and snuggly. The sweatermaker yarn is really nice. I need to get more in the store soon.

I decided I want to make that shawl too. I am going to use 3 colours of Batik and 3 strands thick. I am going to try and do a shading change of colours.

I haven't done a swatch yet to see how it will look but I can see it in my mind and it looks great. I am too lazy tonight to wind yarn so it will have to wait.

My son is going to help me with my web site to get it looking good again. I think we are a long ways from having the online store but it is going to be a work in progress for a while. In the meantime there is always eBay. I better go get knitting. 

Free Shipping this week only

I am offering free shipping on purchases of 400 gr. of sock yarn or more from my eBay Store

As with any sale I have to have rules so here they are.
This offer of free shipping is for the US only but I will reduce the cost of shipping in Canada and Overseas by the amount of the US shipping cost. I hate that it costs more to ship items in Canada than in the US.
I live in BC Canada and I can ship to anywhere in the US for cheaper than I can ship to Canada. If I ship 2 balls of sock yarn to Victoria, BC it cost $1.00 more than shipping the same yarn to Florida.

The reason I am having this sale is to THANK all my loyal customers and help with the purchase of your sock yarn for Christmas knitting. I hope you will take advantage of this sale and stock up.

I will blog later today with my lost post from yestrerday.

I lost my blog post

I had a great post written and even some pictures and I lost it somehow. It vanished into cyber oblivion. I am too tired to do it again, so tomorrow I will repost it.

I can post pictures again.

Thanks to my friend Brenda I can post pictures again. She sent me a link to Photobucket and it seems simple to post pictures. ( I need simple when it comes to computers) First picture was a picture taken this morning of Meika talking to me on the phone. She looks so cute I just had to share that one.

This is what I am working on right now. It is a baby sweater for Meika of course but I will use it as a store sample until she grows into it. It is a pattern in the new Schachenmayr Baby Bravo Journal and knit with Baby Bravo Soft 

I am waiting for a few more colours of this yarn to come in and then I will be offering this as a kit on eBay

Now to a funny story about my shawl I was making for the Legion auction that I worte about last week in the post titled My web site is down.

I made the shawl and it was huge so when I finally cast it off I realized just how huge it was. it was over 12 feeet long. No one could wear that so  didn't know what to do so of course I took it to Mom and together we problem solved the shawl. We cut it in half and sewed it togehter and left a neck hole and it became a poncho. I didn't get a picture of it finished but it was really nice. I hope it sold at the auction last night. If not I am sure i will get it back then I will get a picture of it. Once again thanks so much Brenda I feel in touch again now that I can post pictures.

For the locals that buy yarn from my store - I am sending in an order to Lorna's Laces. If you have any request please email them to me at shelmack@telus.net by next weekend. I have a sample selection at the store if you want to come in on Wednesday and look at it.

Photobucket

This is a test post from Photobucket.com

Knitting and Internet frustrations.

I am computer illiterate. I must confess. I am trying to make a new internet site and am very unhappy with my efforts so far. I am a long way off opening the online store unless I get some help. I got a site running this morning that has basic
information so atleast that is better than what the site has been saying for weeks.
As for knitting frustrations. I have been knitting a shawl for the Legion auction next week and I finally got it done. I cast it off and it is at least 12 feet long. I couldn't beleive it. I am taking it to Mom's on Monday so we can work on it together and try and make it into a wearable garment that can be auctioned off.
Of course I can't post pictures yet as I am not sure how. The method I used to use is gone and I haven't figured out how to post them using my new internet site yet.

FRUSTRATION PLUS++++++.
Things will improve. I need my Son to come and visit he is great at all this internet business and he can usually show me how to do things like post pictures. Once I am shown I can do it but I sure can't figure it out on my own.

On the lighter side
The store was great fun yesterday. I met a few new people and had lots of visitors in the store. Everyone is starting to knit for Christmas so the store was really busy. I should start thinking about knitting for the Christmas craft fairs soon.

My Web Site is Down

For now my web site is not working. I have changed over to shared hosting and we are building an online store. My nephew Andrew in Arizona is helping me, the beauty of the internet. I am not sure how long the site will be out of service but I am sure it will be worth the wait. Sorry for anyone needing the free pattern. If you email me I can send it to you.
My yarn sale went good yesterday. It would have been better but we had glorious summer weather here. Who wants to think about knitting fussy scarves in the hot sun. I am knitting a large shawl to be auctioned at the Legion fund raiser on the 24th of Sept. It is nice. I am knitting it end to end , 200 stitches on 10 mm needles. Using Gjestal Naturgarn in teal and white I am alternating the teal and the white and a row of novelty yarn in between each wool row. I am using Online Smash Printin colour 114, Xanadu Matallicin colour 8, Jewels in colour 4 and Starlight in colour 4.
I tried to post a picture but that isn't working either. I kind of wish I hadn't changed over from a system that I know for something I have to learn. I am no computer genius that is for sure. But if we can actually get an online store functioning this delay will be worth it.
I was talking to a help line person yesterday and she said she couldn't learn to knit, she had tried several times but she sure was able talked me through my computer problems. I told her that if she looked at knitting as mathematical instead of a craft she could get it. I hope that works.

New Yarn and Patterns on EBay

I have just list 3 new yarns and 8 new patterns on eBay.
These patterns are from Bee's Knees Knits
Holli Yeoh has given me permission to sell her great patterns in my eBay store

These are amazing patterns and knit up beautifully. If you look at my earlier post at the picture of the Wednesday Knitter you will see Carol's sweater is the pattern Ruby from Bee' Knees Knits. It is a really cute pattern and her sweater looks great.

The New sock yarns are 2 from Online - Sierra and Caribbean
The colours are just great and I can't decide which one I like best. I think I like 735 and 733 the best in the Caribbean series. These are the ones I plan to knit first.
In the Sierra series I love the 580 and 583 the best.

The other new sock yarn is the Regia Canadian Fashion collection. It has 12 yarns and they are named after a City or Province in Canada. The colours are great. they are very vibrant and fun. I am having trouble picking a favourite in this yarn but so far I like the Vancouver, Ontario and Edmonton the best.

I am offering all these yarn as buy it now so you don't need to bid on them just buy them. I am making this real easy as I now everyone wants new sock yarn for all those Christmas sock you need to knit. I have full stck of all the colours but as they sell you will need to email me to see if I still have your favourite colour.

My daughter can knit

Well try to imagine my surprise when my daughter announced to me she can knit. I made Meika a pair of really cute booties with a sheepskin sole and she loved them and wanted more in different colours plus she wants to make them to sell. She told me she could knit because she has watched me so much. So I showed her how to start the booties and sure enough she can knit and purl and do increases, decreases etc. She picked it up so quick. So here are 2 pictures of Megan, the first one she is knitting and nursing Meika, I remember doing that with her,maybe that is when she started learning to knit. The second picture is her first finished bootie.


I am just thrilled she is taking up knitting. Nothing like having a baby to motivate the knitting gene in someone.
I made a little ponch set for Meika. it is out of Plymouth Outback and Mohair that I got at elann years ago. I made the booties with the sheepskin soles. Here is Meika in her little set. She loves looking at her feet right now and she loved all her new booties.

Meika is now 12 weeks old. She is so much fun. They were here visiting for a few days and have gone back home today.
Yesterday at the store was great we had a lot of knitters enjoying the sun. They all had lots of finished projects but I had to take a group shot due to lack of time. So here they are left to right:
Marnie - is working on a sweater back, not sure what pattern but it sure looks nice and she had a little baby sock and hat set finished and another really cute baby hat.
You can se them if you look close
Ginny - has her first pair of finshed socks and a sweater made with Noro Silk Garden she is working on. Both look great
Megan - is working on bootie #2
Judy - didn't bring her knitting but she has new yarn so maybe next week she will have something
Carol - has her little Bees Knees sweater nearly finished. it is really cute.
And of course Meika in the middle learning to knit so she can surprise her Mom and Grandma someday.
Mom was camera shy and busy in the store.


I am in for a really busy few days. We are having a sale on Saturday, 10% off all the novelty yarns. I just got in a pile of new yarn that needs to get inventoried and in the store by Sat. Hopefully I can get it done today. Here is some of the new yarns. I have a lot to do.

I got in the new sock yarn from Regia and Online the colours are amazing, plus the Llama wool, Llama angora sock yarn. Wow is it nice
I will post about that later

Can anyone give me a hint of how to center my blog again. I am not sure why it is over at the side and i don't like it but can't see how to change it. If you know what I should do could you email me at shelmack@telus.net Thanks

The surprise yarn arrived

My favourite yarn has arrived.
My yarn tree in the store needed new decorations so I bought some Colinette Giotto and Isis for it.
It looks fabulous. This pictures doesn't do it justice at all

The colours are great and sadly one of the skiens of yarn was a little messy so I had to buy it, then I had to but its partner to make a store sample(My new excuse to buy yarn).
I have at least 3 scarves on needles right now(all store samples)

but reason didn't prevail and I started a colinette shawl. The colours are amazing together.
I am knitting it 2 rows Giotto and 2 rows Isis. It is growing very quickly.
The store was fun today. I totally rearranged the store. I got a big new revolving rack that hold an amazing amount of yarn so I filled it up. I forgot to get a picture of it in my Colinette excitement.
Yesterday I also got a sample of some Llama sock yarn from a friend. She is sending me some for in the store. The colours are rich and natural and the yarn is very soft. It is blended with merino wool and the bottom white on the swatch is blended with Angora. It is amazing yarn and the socks it makes are super nice. I am going to make myself a pair of Angora llama socks once it comes. I can't wait.They need to be knit with reinforcing yarn for the heels and toes.

Off to knit more on the shawl.

Back from camp

We are back from camp and it will take at least a week to unpack. It is amazing the amount of stuff you need to take when you have a child with special needs. Its a good thing we have a big van. Anyways we had a good time. There was a lot going on for all of us and it was great to see some old friends and meet some new families. We also got to see Megan and Meika. Here is a picture of them in their Harley shirts
She is growing up so quickly and she is so much fun to play with.
We were able to visit with all our kids but for some reason only got pictures of Meika.
I got a bit of knitting done while I was away. I am knitting a sweater for a customer using ecoknits cotton. I will post the picture when it is done.
Yesterday was very busy at the store. Gary and Stephanie the Reps. from Diamond and Nova yarns came to see us with all their suitcases full of yarn.
Wow that is fun. Talk about getting yarn overload.
I ordered lots of yarn and new patterns for the store.
One thing I am excited about is the new sock yarns. Regia has a new line of yarn called the Canadian Fashion series
Sorry the colour samples are so little but it is the only one I can find.
The other sock yarn I ordered was the Online Sierra I have been waiting for this yarn to reappear. It is really nice so I am glad I can order it again. I also ordered the Online Caribbean Collection
These colours are great and I can't wait to knit some of these socks.
I also orderd lots of scarf yarn,. pictures to follow.
The new Noro Silver thaw

I ordered all the colours and enough to make a sweater for myself out of #3 colour. I love this yarn. It is sooooooooooo soft.
I also ordered a few other yarns from Schachenmayr, Rosato in colours 52, 35, 33, 72, 01 and 52. This is very soft yarn and would make a lovely substitute for angora.
Sportic in a few colours,
52, 53, 31, 33, 70, 71,12, 10.
This yarn is very nice bulky yarn and should be fun to make up some patterns for.
I also got a new Baby yarn - Baby Bravo Soft in great bright colours.
Now I need a bigger store or more creative shelf packing methods. Any ideas are welcome.
Did I mention I ordered lots of pattern too.
Now I can't wait for it all to come.
I also ordered one surprise that I will post a picture of when it comes.

Pictures

Here are the pictures I promised.
First is Meika wearing her Opal Rainforest Tiger hat. I used the pattern on my web site to make it.

Meika is now 2 months old and weighs over 12lbs. She is one healthy happy girl. We are going to Vancouver to Family camp later today so I get to see her again. Can't wait to hold her and play with her.
Here are the pictures of the shawl kits and shawls i purchased on the trip.
Sweatermaker Large Shawl is made of 3 yarns all hand dyed and hand spun- 100% Wool, Silk and wool 50-50% and loopy mohair.

Sweatermaker Small Shawl is made of 3 yarns all hand dyed and hand spun- Mohair, Silk and wool 50-50% and loopy mohair.

Here are the kits. Her colours are amazing

I also bought a load of her hand dyed, hand spun pure wool. It is so soft. I knit a hat as a sample and will show that next time. My camera was full so missed that picture. The yarn and the colours are amazing.
Here are my bags of alpaca I came home with

These were heaping bags but I sold some before I got this picture. One of the neat features of this yarn besides the quality and softness is that each skein has a tag that says who's yarn is in the batch. The picture I have isn't too clear but it shows tha Alpaca's picture and their name.


I will be back on Friday. Anyone needing help or questions answered I will have access to a computer so will be able to contact you. If you haven't paid for the yarn from last weeks auction it will be sent next Monday. If you have paid it will be in today's mail and you will be notified.
Better go and get packing.

What a week

My husband and I went on a mini holiday this week. We left Tuesday morning and came back Friday night. That doesn't sound like a big deal to most people but when you work in the field we are in this is a big deal. It is quite complex to get a break from home when you look after special needs people. The week went great. I call it a week as it sounds better than a few days. We decided to go to Victoria and stop at all the yarn stores on Vancouver Island along way. First we went to Uptown Yarns in Courtenay. It is a nice store with lots of great yarn. I got lots of ideas from their store. I was interested in the Sweatermaker brand of yarn hand spun and dyed by a local fiber artist so I got her name from them.
Then we drove to Victoria. We didn't stop at the Naniamo stores as I have been there before. The next day we went to Beehive Yarn store. Well they have every yarn I have ever heard of and plenty I have never heard of before. It was there I was able to make a comparison between Fleece Artist, Handmaiden and Sweatermaker yarn. I was impressed at the quality of the 3 yarns and the Sweatermaker was as nice as the previous yarns so I vowed to get in touch with the supplier.
I arranged to meet her on our trip home.
The next day we went to Salt Spring Island and saw the store there. Then we went to the St' Marys Alpaca farm and bought some fabulous alpaca for the store. This is wonderful yarn. Sadly to say I am very allergic to alpaca and spent the rest of the day itchy and watery. I actually had to get medication to settle it down. What a shame as I love alpaca. Mom is knitting some samples for the store with it as I think it would kill me to knit with it.
We spent the rest of the day just being tourists.
Our last day was the busiest. We went to Sideny and saw 2 yarn stores. They were both great and I got many more ideas for my store. On the way home we stopped at the Loom in Duncan. It is loaded with yarn. The next stop was Courtenay again and a visit with the Sweatermaker yarn owner. What fun that was. I love her yarn and came home with a Van full of it. I will post pictures tomorrow. I m too tired tonight.
This trip was wonderful. My husband and I had a great time and he is the best. When he got bored with the yarn store he just amused himself somewhere else. He works with leather and he always managed to find a leather store near a yarn store so that was convenient.
When we went on this trip I really wanted to see how my new store compared to other stores and I came home feeling really good about the Fun Knits Yarn Shop. I got great ideas to use and a few new lines of yarn for the store. A very succesful trip plus we went out for dinner every night, went to the IMAX theatre and to the show one night. I actually got to sleep late a few mornings (a real treat).
I will post pitures tomorrow of the new yarn and also Meika in the Opal Tiger hat.