happy mega meeting friday

Hi everyone.
The retreat was so much fun, I hope next year Meika will be sleeping all night so that we are able to stay at the camp. I hope to see a few retreaters on the mega meeting today.
Don't be shy, come see the store and chat with me. I'm still offering 10% your first purchase from mega meeting and if that order is over $50 I will throw in free shipping.
See you soon
~Megan
p.s
click on the link below to begin your mega meeting experience
Meeting: march3007

~Karen ... I got it working, hope to see you soon :-)

When Bloggers meet

There is something magical when bloggers meet. When you read someones blog you get to know the person a bit. You certainly get to know what style of knitting they like even what colours they prefer. You can also get a sense of what they are like. Same with email friends. I met a lot of people this weekend who read the blog. I met one person who I have got to know by email - Audrey. It is great to finally meet her.

I met Peg whose blog I follow, I told her she is just like her blog. She is just like I imagined she would be. Brenda whose blog I have followed for a long time and I have known for a while as she is a great customer also got to meet Peg for the first time at the retreat. I think bloggers have a special bond. This picture is Brenda and Peg with their Teddys.

The next pictures are of Mary and her Teddy. She made an original Teddy Bear sweater. Isn't he handsome. I was quite impressed how quick she whipped up that sweater and then dictated the pattern to me from memory.

I have got a lot of feedback about the retreat and most of it was positive so I talked with Camp Homewood today and they have given us next years date. The 2nd Spring Knitting Retreat will be March 28-30th 2008. I hope to see many of you again and lots of new knitter too.

A Very Fun Retreat

This weekend was very fun. The retreat went well and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I had a lot of fun and it was great to meet so many knitters. There were 40 knitters at the retreat. All ages and all levels of knitting experience. I have a lot of pictures. I didn't even get my camera out until Saturday so I don't have any pictures of the store packed with about 30 knitters on Friday night. It was fun.

On Saturday morning we started the Teddy Bear sweaters. The first pictures are of people working on the sweaters. Charlotte 11 years old was our youngest knitter at the retreat and she knit a fun pink teddy sweater. Then Saturday afternoon I thought what better for knitters than to play with yarn so they got 25 samples of different yarn to play with. I didn't get any pictures of the Yarn sampling as I was too busy. .

I got lots of pictures of the Fashion Show/ Show and tell. This was a great activity. What better for knitters than to get to look at other knitters knitting.

Roger's Gansey, Marilyn's wedding shawl, Mary's Escher inspired seal sweater. Myriam's shawl and Carol's Award winning Stary night socks

The retreat ended today with some wonderful group shots of the well dressed Teddy Bears. Some of the people left early today so their Teddy's didn't get in the pictures.

Charlotte was very proud of her first sweater. She knit this with very little help from her mother. She doesn't really like knitting on double pointed needles so I think next year she will learn the magic loop method of circular knitting. The next picture is Megan, Meika and the Teddy all wearing the Pinwheel sweaters.

A few group photos of our well dressed Teddy's and their owners. This was fun I think we will do this again next year. I will blog more about the retreat tomorrow. I have a lot more pictures. We have an original Teddy sweater, pictures of bloggers meeting etc....

no mega meeting today

Due to the Knitting retreat and the very busy day I'm going to have getting ready for it I wont have time to do the mega meeting today. I will be doing it next Friday so Look for mega meeting on next Fridays blog.
Hope to see you then
~Megan

Just 1 more day

Just 1 day until the retreat. I am excited. For everyone coming to the retreat. Please bring a good variety of your knitting needles. I mentioned in the hand out to bring 4 - 5 mm needles. Some of the sweaters need smaller and 1 needs 5.5mm dp and 16" circulars. I have lots of needles people can borrow if they don't have that size or the store has a good stock for buying needles.
Please drive safe and I look forward to meeting all you wonderful knitters. We have 40 people coming to the retreat. I can't even imagine how fun this will be. I will certainly post lots of pictures and details after the retreat. Note to myself- Don't forget the camera....

Happy St. Patricks Day

Here are some pictures for St. Patricks' Day. I haven't put any pictures of Meika on the blog for a long time. She is so cute and especially cute today all in green with her shamrock hair band.
Here she is cleaning the house. Child labour
Here is a picture of Sweetie. Many of you may remember him last year when we got him . You need to scroll down the post to see Sweetie. As you can see he has improved a lot. He is now happy, playful and very healthy.
Lastly here are some of the bears all dressed and ready to go to camp next weekend. We have a few more waiting for sweaters. I am really busy getting ready for camp. It should be a lot of fun.

10% off your megameeting purchase

Its Friday again everyone. That means its mega meeting day again. So join us , come say hi and tell me where you are from.For a limited time this spring I'm giving mega meeting customers 10% off, and if your first purchase is over $50 I will throw in free shipping.
So click on the link and join us for another mega meeting Friday. Chat ,shop, ask questions , just have fun.
Meeting: march162007
I have the camera pointed out at the store so you will see the entrance and all the beautiful yarn when you log on. Hope to chat with ya today
~Megan

T.G.I.F

Hi Megan here,
Its Friday again, and that means its mega meeting day. Now don't be shy when you sign on . There is a chat box just below the web cam. Say hello and where you are from. Also I thought I should mention you have no obligation to shop or buy anything. But if you wish to do so it is allot of fun with the web cam. I love shopping in my pj's :-)
So come on in to fun Knits today and have a chat with me, tell me about your projects, ask me questions, let me know what you think of mega meeting.
I hope to see you today.
Just click on the link below and sign in, its so easy.
Meeting: 9march2007

Fibre Fun

I had a great day today. I went down to Courtenay to Judy Macleans of Sweatermaker yarns to do some business. I love going there I am sure you can see by these pictures why. Fibre paradise!!!

I came home with some fabulous hand dyed tops for spinning, needle felting or whatever. They are going in the store tomorrow and on the internet by the weekend. I have Silk and Merino blends and Blue faced lester wool tops all hand dyed in beautiful colours.

This beautiful fibre is inspiring me to learn to spin. It is so soft and wonderful. Enjoy the pictures.

Victoria was fun

Here are pictures of our trip to Victoria. The first picture is Deb way in the back of the van buried in yarn and racks. She happily sat in her corner and knit there and back. The next picture she took of me in the front. I was knitting my Tofutsie sock. I wanted it finished to show how nice and soft the yarn is.

Socks finished. As usual not a pair but they don't look bad together. The blue on is Regia Bamboo. Nice yarn. The next picture was the night view from our room. Much nicer in person. That is the Parliament building lit up at night. It was really pretty

Then of course the booth. Not bad looking for a 10X10 space. I worried how I would cram all that yarn in a little space but I have a lot of experience in that department. The booth didn't even look cluttered and lots of room for shoppers. I am happy to say that there were lots of shoppers and they bought lots of yarn. We came back a bit lighter. It was a great weekend.

I also want to mention the retreat only has a few spaces left so you may be out of luck if you don't register today or tomorrow.

Shop on line with live customer service

Hi everyone, I'm Megan Shelley's daughter and I'm very happy to announce that we are finally launching our new on line shopping option. Every Friday I will be on line with mega meeting on our web cam ready for you to join the meeting and serve you. This way no matter where you are in the world you can shop as tho you are really in the store. You will see me and you will be able to see the actual colors of the yarn you are buying. This will be our first day so you may have to bear with me while we work out the bugs. I hope this is a fun experience for everyone. As far as payment goes we are still working on that, you may mail a check and we will send out your product as soon as we get it or you may phone fun knits with a credit card number and we will ship it on Monday.
All you do to get started is click on the link Meeting: 2march2007
Easy... Hope to see a few of you today. Happy shopping :-)

1 down 4 to go

One craft show down and 4 to go. These shows are a lot of work to set up and tear down but so worth it. I get to meet so many knitters and see lots of old friends. What a great job I have hanging out with knitters all day who love yarn as much as I do. My Mom and Dad helped me so much this weekend. Mom helped me sell yarn and Dad talked to the bored husbands. We had a good time.

I taught my course and it went OK. I could have used a lot more time but I gave a crash course in Fair Isle, Cables and Intarsia in 45 minutes. Seemed like everybody got something out of the course. At least they went home with a bunch of free patterns to try the methods. Not much time to actually knit.

Brenda stopped by my booth and was wearing her new cardigan she made with Malabrigo. It is really nice. You can read about it here.

My next show is in Victoria this weekend at the Victoria Conference Centre. I will be in Booth #70. I will have a sign on my booth so I should be easy to find - I will be the booth with the very colourful sock yarn. The booth is open 9 am - 6 pm March 2 -3. Hope to see lots of Victoria friends and knitters. If you are coming to the show and have any special yarn requests email me at shelmack@telus.net

Here is a list of the next shows we are in

May 11-12, 2007 - FibrefestInternational at the Tradex in Abbotsford BC.

This one is going to be great. I am looking forward to seeing lots of old friends and of course making new ones.

June 8-11, 2007 - Victoria Fibrefest - We are sponsoring this event and you will see our name Fun Knits everywhere in connection with this event.

Friday night June 8th - Fashion show sponsored by the Victoria Knitters Guild

Sat. June 9th will be classes and a Yarn Crawl to all the local shops. I will be teaching a beginner sock knitting class from 1-4 on Sat.

In the evening Beehive Yarn Shop in Victoria is sponsoring the Yarn Harlot. Stephanie will be speaking and signing books. I am looking forward to meeting her. I have never heard her speak so this will be fun.

Sun. June 10th will be the Knit Out at Saxe Point Park in Esquilmalt 10 am - 4 pm. I will have the Fun Knits Tent full of sock yarn again this year. Pray for Sun!!!!!!

August 15-18 - Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival - I will have a booth in the Merchant Mall again this year. Last year was a lot of fun so I am sure it will be great again this year.

Then we are taking a holiday. I think we will need one by then.

The Fashion Show

Here are some pictures from the first day of the North Island Sewing & Needle Arts Show. The first picture is our van full of sock yarn. We had only 2 hours to set up before the doors opened so we packed the yarn in the bins. It was really a nice way to set up and I think we will do this everytime we have a show.
The next 3 pictures are our set up. Pretty good for 2 hours I think.

















This picture is Megan's Toe Kozies and some cute knit dolls that we sell.






Now on to the fashion show. Meika and Megan both wore their Pinwheel sweaters and then Megan wore the Squiggle Web Shawl. They both looked great. Meika stole the show off course. She came out looking very cute and walked down the runway holding hands with Megan, everyone clapped as they were going back and Meika went down the runway again ( not part of the plan) so everyone could get a better look. It was quite cute. It was a good day and we are exhausted. Tomorrow will be busy.

New Yarn

Today I went to Judy Macleans in Courtenay and picked up the new colours of Floral Spectrum sock yarn. Wow they are nice. These pictures don't do the yarn justice and I will take proper pictures tomorrow in the daylight and I will post them in the Web Store tomorrow night. I also got a picture of my new pair of socks. I knit one sock with Mulberry Bush and the other with Red Rose. I will get the second socks knit soon. ( I hope) You can't even imagine the number of socks I have around here without mates. I have a bad case of Second Sock Syndrome. There must be a support group somewhere for people like me. I think I am just going to start wearing my many unmatched socks. Maybe I will start a new fad.



I also got in some New Regia Cotton Java yarn today. It is really nice. Great for Spring and summer socks. I have it listed on the Web Store to buy already. I really love the green colour - # 1184 and the multi - # 1188. They are my favourites maybe I will knit 1 sock of each colour.
Mary - I am coming to Victoria March 2-3 for the Sewing and Crafts Show at the Conference centre. I am going to be in booth # 7o I am bringing tons of sock yarn to sell. Hope you can make it.
Rhonda - I will bring lots of Shawl kits to Fibre fest in May. See you there.

Whats coming up??

Lots. I am going to be very busy for the next 2 weeks. I am going to be in the North Island Sewing and Needle Arts show in Campbell River this weekend Feb 23-24. I will have a merchant booth and I am bringing lots of great yarn. The booth wil be open 2 -5pm on Friday and 10 - 5pm on Sat. On Friday evening they are having a Fashion show. Megan and Meika are goign to be in this. They are going to model the Pinwheel Sweaters and Megan will model the Squiggle web shawl.
I am going to see Judy Maclean today and get more sock yarn. She has a few new colours dyed for us. I will bring lots of her yarn to the show.
Next week I and the yarn will be in Victoria - stay tuned for more details on that

Floral Spectrum Socks

This is the first sock of Fun Knits brand new sock yarn - Floral Spectrum Socks -
This is the nicest sock yarn I have ever knit with. It is just as nice as Lorna's Laces in my opinion. I would call this the Malibrigo of sock yarn. I knit all day yesterday and got the heel turned on my new sock. I am in need of new socks so these are for me. I am going to knit a pair in the Red Rose next. The Mulberry Bush colour wasn't my favourite when I first saw the yarn but I was curious how it would look knit up. Well now I love it. They look like Spring.
The new sock yarn is at the Web Store and ready to go. Judy is already dying a new batch of this yarn as we don't think this will last too long. I may just knit it all.
You may notice I am hand knitting the socks too. I have rules for sock knitting. I can't machine knit beautiful yarn. It is a waste of the pure knitting pleasure.
So back to pure knitting pleasure. I am going to cast on Red Rose next, then the Sweet Pea and of course the Calendula. By then we should have new colours too.

Beautiiful new yarn

Here is a look at the new yarn I got last night. It was still a bit damp from being dyed so I have it hanging over the ironing board drying. The colours are amazing. This is the beginning of a new sock yarn from Fun Knits. It is dyed for us by Judy Maclean of Sweatermaker yarns. She is amazing at combining colours

This new sock yarn is called Floral Spectrum Socks - 75% superwash wool, 25% Nylon - 420 m /100gr skein. It costs $21.50 Canadian and $18.95 US.

This is the softest sock yarn I have knit with. It feels a lot like Lorna's Laces. I am really happy with this yarn. Today I am getting it labelled and priced. Tomorrow it will be available to buy at the Web Store.

The colours I have are

Mulberry Bush - greens /purples/blues

Sweet Pea - pinks/ white/ blues/ green/purples

Red Rose - reds and pinks

and Calendula - yellows / golds/ brown/ olive

More flowery colours will be added within the next few months. If you have any flowers you love and can suggest colours let me know and we will work on getting them for you. This is so much fun.!!!

Week in review

This has been a busy week at Fun Knits. Lots of people are registered for the Spring Knitting retreat. But there is still room for more. You need to be registered but March 15th. There are still a few semi private rooms available too but hurry if you want those.

I had my first auction on EBay since I moved to the new store and now I will have weekly auctions again for those interested.

I list a lot of new yarn on the Web Store. I have these great Sock Kits in stock. They are in 8 great colours, teal, brown, rust, red, navy, lime (shown), purple, and burgundy. Look at the Web Store to see all the colours. They are a great beginner set. Enough yarn to make 2 pair of socks 2 - 50 gr solid and 2- 50 gr matching patterned yarn plus 2.5mm double pointed needles and a pattern. for sock in any size. The sets are $22.95 Canadian or $19.95 US. A good price for 2 pair of socks even if you don't need the needles. The yarn is regular sock yarn 75% wool 25% nylon and very nice and soft.
I also list the new Opal yarns - Feelings (pictures on web site)



Opal Smoke - 8 colours that men can wear and women too

Opal Rainbow - one yarn every colour of the Rainbow

Opal Pop up - collection of 5 great colours for spring

and the long awaited Opal Rainforest 2 - Wow these are great -

So if you need new spring yarns check these out at my Web Store