I love Kauni yarn

Ever since the shipment of Kauni came in last week. The colour EL has been haunting me to knit it. It is a wonderful background colour for EQ. It has royal blue to purple to black then back to royal blue. I am making a top down sweater for Meika. This is going to be a little sweater and skirt set for her and I am hoping to get it done for her birthday on June 14th. I think I will make it as I can't put this down. I was quite worried about when the EQ yarn turns to purple and would it look OK, would it have enough contrast etc. Well I am at the purple and I think it is OK. The EL is just starting to turn from black to blue. The next section of EQ will be red so that should look really good with the deep blue. I am thinking the sweater will be long enough when I get to the royal blue and orange again. This is so much fun to knit. I am not sure what to do about the sleeves. I think I will try and match them. They will never match the body as they are knit with much less stitches around so the colour will change differently but I think I will match the sleeves to each other and start at the right colours in the sequence. More to come on that.

As for the skirt I am still thinking about designs for that. I am making it a size 4 so it fits her a while. It isn't exactly a summer outfit after all. Let me know if you like it Megan!!

In other knitting I got the 1st prayer shawl done last week. Thanks to everyone at the retreat that worked on it and added their warm healing thoughs while they knit on it. The recipient was delighted with it. I made it really big and it is more like a blanket. She loves it and curls up in it all the time.

Philosopher's Wool coming Oct 3-5

Ann and Eugene Bourgeois of Philosopher's Wool are great people that I have admired for some time. I have read their book and really enjoyed it and I love their sweaters. I even try the 2 handed Fair Isle now and then. Well then I had the opprotunity to meet Ann and Eugene at Madrona in Feb. I sat and talked at length with Eugene about knitting and business and lamb's and Quadra Island etc..... The entire time we chatted Eugene knit and it was like we were old friends. Ann was busy talking to my friend and selling yarn kits. I asked Eugene if they would ever consider coming to a Knitting retreat and teaching. He promptly told me they are retired and don't do retreats anymore. We talked some more and then he said is the retreat on your Island. Then we started to make plans. Ann loves to travel and teach but they have slowed down the schedule lately. She was very surprised when Eugene asked her if she wanted to go to Quadra Island and teach at a Knitting retreat. She loved the idea so after a few phone calls and some planning - Ann and Eugene are coming to teach at our Fall Retreat.

I am really looking forward to this. Go read about it and then sign up because this will fill quickly. The price for the entire weekend and workshops is $325 if you sign up before July 25th and $350 after. I also have about 20 spots for those who want to just hang out with us for the weekend and not learn 2 handed Fair Isle. Phone me for details 250-285-2751 -

This is our group banner on Ravelry come and join if you are a member.

What a gift

Last year at the Spinning and Weaving retreat on Quadra Island I was a vendor and so was Jane Stafford. You may remember this blog entry , during the down time at the retreat for the vendors we sat around and I taught Jane to knit socks. Well she became a great sock knitter. She loves knitting them and yesterday she gave me a pair of socks to thank me for teaching her. Wow - I was impressed. They are creative fun socks a they match my Kauni sweater, I love them Thanks Jane - I will wear them to every show since I wear my Kauni to every show.

Speaking of Kauni I just got my shipment in with lots of EQ and 3 new colours EV, EL and EU. I LOVE the EL and am going to knit something with that for sure. I will have these posted on the website for sale on Tuesday.

Here are some pictures of my booth out at the Retreat this weekend.

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