Fibery Fun Potluck Picnic

Anyone want to come - Friday July 11 - 5:30 pm until whenever at Rebecca Spit on Quadra Island. We are going to be joined by Astor she is an up and coming knitwear designer from Vancouver. She has several patterns published and teaches knitting in Vancouver. She will be bringing some of her designs to show everyone.
I think this will be a fun get together. - So bring some picnic food - your knitting and or spinning wheel - families - and lets have fun knitting/spinning at the beach.
It looks like we are in for a good week weather wise so hope it continues into next weekend.

Spinning as usual on Tuesday

Fun Knits will be open on Canada Day and there will be spinning as usual in the morning. Can't think of a better way to start Canada Day celebration.

The Fibrefest I missed

As all of you know I missed going to the Fiberfest this year. But thanks to cell phones and the Internet I felt like I was there. I got a full set of fashion show pictures, another full set of Sivia's presentation plus lots of Knit Out pictures.
My daughter and I cell phone shopped in the morning. She went around to each booth highlighting what they had in there booths and i talked to lots of the vendors who are friends.
Raven, Joan, Mary and Sarah all helped at the booth and I can't than k them enough for this. They all did a great job.
Judy sat in front of the booth and spun.
It was a nice day but windy and it looks like everyone had fun.
Here are some pictures starting with the fashion show and of course Meika wearing the little Kauni skirt set I made for her. The next picture is Marilyn the Fiberfest coordinator holding up my ravelry picture I sent to say hi to everyone. The rest are Sivia's presentation which I wish I could have been too and then the Knit out. Trish from Indigo Moon is talking to me on the phone.
So I still was very much a part of the weekend thanks to technology and friends and family.

The yarn has left home

Well I really wondered how it would be to pack up the Van with yarn for the Knit Out and then watch as the crew left this morning. Well it is very much like sending your little one to camp for the weekend for the first time. I know it is in good hands but I will not be there to over see everything. There is a lot of yarn going down to Victoria for the Knit Out and the store looks a bit sparse but there is still a lot of yarn here if anyone is coming to Quadra for the weekend.

Since I can't go to the Victoria FibreFest weekend I am going to rely on others to blog about it and or email me about it.

If you are in the Victoria area don't forget to check out the fun weekend that is planned. It looks like we might even get nice weather.

Look who came to cheer me up

I was expecting my husband home from Vancouver yesterday. He went down to Meika's 3rd birthday party. When he came in he asked me to go get him something so I left to get it and then he called me to come help him. Look what he was hiding. Meika. She jumped into my arms and said "I love you Grandma." What a wonderful surprise. Similar to this surprise.
I have been quite down about missing everything lately so this cheered me up a lot. Last night before bed I read Meika a story about a Grandma making a blueberry pie with her grand child so guess what we did first thing this morning. Made a Blueberry pie.
Megan and Meika will be here all week before going to the Victoria FibreFest.

Victoria FibreFest next weekend

Wow this snuck up quickly. The annual Victoria FibreFest and Knit Out is coming this weekend.
Look how much fun we had last year. I just looked at the weather forecast (scroll down for the long range forecast). It looks like the Knit Out day will have great weather - Sunny partly cloudy a high of 18C and S winds 5k and a 10% chance of rain.
I hope that is an accurate forecast. I really hate subjecting the yarn to the elements. It is a lot of work to keep the yarn all dry in an outdoor (hurricane) market place.
Last year it was amazing how many people came and enjoyed the day inspite of the weather. Diehard BC knitters.
This year the fibrefest will have the same general layout
Fashion Show on Friday night - Meika will be in this modeling several garments - only 1 I knit.
Saturday - will be the yarn crawl and classes. Saturday night Sivia Harding will be the guest speaker
Sunday the Knit Out. Sivia has designed this fabulous shawl for the event and we will have kits available to make this shawl. Kits include 4 skeins of natural Silk 55%/Cashmere 45%, beads, pattern and a crochet hook for putting on the beads. The retail price of the kit is $84.95 and the Knit Out special will be $69.95. Plus we will have loads of great yarn.
The big difference this year is that I can't come. Fun Knits will still be there. I am so fortunate to have so many good people to help me out when I am having a bad time.

On Friday my husband Bill is going to help me pack up the store and head for Victoria by himself. He will meet Megan and Meika there. They will go to the fashion show and take lots of pictures I hope. Here is a picture of my husband so you can all be very kind to him. This is his first show without me.
On Saturday - Mary Tanti and Joan Powers are going to teach sock knitting for me. They have taught several classes with me before so they are ready to do it without me.
Saturday night I will be home pouting that I can't be there to see Sivia's presentation. My gang aren't going to that so if someone would send me pictures that would be great.
On Sunday Bill and troop will set up the booth. (This will be his first time setting up the yarn without me, I am a bit worried about this). Raven and Joan will be at the booth to help you buy yarn all day. Sarah has also volunteered to help out. I feel great about this. Many of you may have met Raven at the Victoria Sewing and Craft show. She helped me there also.
What a great group of people. I will miss being there but Fun Knits and all the yarn will be there.
I leave you with a pictures of Meika from her 3rd Birthday Party.(Which I also missed believe it or not)

World Wide Knit in Public Day - tomorrow

Yes tomorrow is a big day. That is the day that we are all supposed to proudly show off our knitting ability by getting together and knitting in public. I will be knitting in front of the store tomorrow. Anyone who would like to join me please come. It is always fun to knit with others.
If you can't come please take a few minutes and knit in public tomorrow.
Tomorrow is also a very great day for another reason. Tomorrow Meika turns 3 - amazing isn't it. She is such a big girl now. She shares a birthday with Stephanie aka Yarn Harlot.
I feel that increases Meika's odds for being a knitter. Meika is a the 6th generation on our side of the family that are knitter's. It is in her genes.
Happy Birthday Meika and Stephanie !!!!!

Horray!!! Grandma sent me a parcel

On this rainy stormy day I got a parcel full of socks from Grandma.

My favorite are the multi color pink cotton ones. My Elephant really loves them too, keeps his trunk nice and warm.

I am so excited that I can put these socks on all by my self... socks on more socks.

I have a bit of growing to do before the wool cherry tree hill ones fit me. But it wont take me long, Mom says Im growing up really fast!

Thank you for the socks Grandma. I love them!!!

Love Meika

Back on track

Looks like we are back on track and the store will be open regular hours starting today. The new guy at the group home is trained and the guy who had the heart attack is nicely recovering and will be back to work soon. Phewwwwwwwwww.
So what have I done over the past few weeks to ease stress. I knit Meika 3 pair (yes you read that correctly pair) of socks. Megan wanted some little short socks for her for summer so here they are. These socks are left to right - Cherry tree hill potluck Brights - Regia Not sure the # it was missing the ball band. and the new Paton's Stretch sock which is wonderful to knit with. It is a cotton/wool blend with nylon and elastic. This colour is Sugar. Love it.
I have also been spinning the most colourful fibre I could find. Not sure what I will make with it but it is lovely to spin. It is Louet Northern Lights Circus
It is amazing how these simple fibre arts can keep a persons mind OK during a very stressful time.

Soon to be back to normal hours

Today the store will be open from 10 - 2 and then the rest of the week should be 10-5. I hope I didn't jinx things by saying that.

Store hours

Today we will be open from 10 am - 2:30 pm - The spinning group will meet as usual. See you there.

Fun Knits closed today and tomorrow

The ongoing saga is ongoing. Due to a few medical situations the store is closed today. Can't be helped. I am hoping things will settle down in a week or so and we will be back to the normal schedule.
So for this week
Closed - today and tomorrow
Open Sat - and it should be a really fun day - lots of great sales - Mom will be at the store

Tuesday - the store will open at 10am for the spinning group for sure Deb is opening and should be open all day (unless we get more disasters)
Wed - not sure
Thursday - Deb will work all day - open 10am - 5pm

So if you really need yarn you better come on Saturday, Tuesday morning or Thursday next week.
It is interesting how things can change in life so quickly. I will keep you posted

Calling all Spinners and Knitters

We need spinners and knitters to come and bring your work. We are having a knitting and spinning demo on Sat in front of the store. Please bring your items you want to show off for display and hang around and knit and or spin for a while. It should be a lot of fun.
I am sorry i have to miss it but my Mom and Dad will be there.
We are also having a sidewalk sale at Fun Knits on Sat May 31 10am - 5pm. The store beside us Hummingbird is celebrating their 10th anniversary in business so we are all celebrating. Doesn't take much to make us want to party. Actually the entire Cove is having sales and special plus the Farmer's Market will be on. We will have a tent out in front of the store and we want to have knitter's and spinners there all day.
This should be a real fun day

Store hours for this week
Due to staffing issues and medical problems at my group home we will have different hours this week.
Today - open all day until 4:45 - Mom is at the store and closing a few minutes early to catch the 5 pm ferry home
Thursday - open 10 am - 2 pm
Friday - closed all day
Saturday - open and very fun day 10 am - 4:45 pm

Next week I will figure it out when I get to it.

If you are curious what is going on the main employee at the group home had a heart attack on Sunday - He will be OK and will be back in a while. I guess we should give him some recovery time. The new staff isn't finished training yet so we will have a few weeks of uncertain hours at the store (can't be helped). We have been working short staffed for a 4 months now anyways but No staff is nearly impossible. My son also has surgery on friday so he will need a few days home with me to recouperate.
Wish me luck to stay sain over the next few weeks!!!!!

Life gets really nuts now and then

Many of you who know me know I also run a group home for special needs people as well as the yarn shop. Usually this works out fine and I can do both with the help of staff, welllllll this week and probably next week it isn’t going to work out at all.
I will update daily so people will know the store hours. Tomorrow we will open at 10 and have our spinning group as usual but I will be closing early tomorrow. I will probably close at 2 -3 pm depends entirely on my special needs son and his capacity to hang around the store!!!! Wed my Mom will be in the store so it will open at 10am and close at 4:45pm Thurs and Friday who knows. I am going to try and be open regular hours on Sat. Sorry if this is inconvienient for anybody but it can't be helped.

Sock Wars 3 Kill or be Killed

So what does the average person do when they are busy. Likely work on everything until it's done right. Well I am very busy actually too busy to accomplish what I need to so I gave up and joined the army. The Sock Wars army. What is Sock Wars 3 you ask - you can click the link and read about it or here is the short version.

Everyone who signed up for Sock Wars was emailed a pattern and the name and address of the victim - you then knit a sock for your victim and mail it to them. Once they receive you sock they are dead. In the meantime someone is knitting a sock for you and mailing it to you. If I get killed before I finish I must send the socks in progress to the person that killed me and they finish your sock and send it to your original victim. The last person knitting wins. SWTC is the official sponsor of Sock Wars3 and has offered a prize of 60 balls of Tofutsie to the winner if they knit their original socks in Tofutsie. I will never win because I was too lazy too go back to the store and get my yarn plus I am doomed anyways. My assassin emailed me to make sure of my shoe size. So here is what my socks look like as of Sat. Scroll down to see them. They are probably in the mail by now.

I didn't get my pattern until Saturday night and my victim's name and shoe size. I was supposed to knit this with Tofutsies - the official yarn of the Sock Wars but I forgot it at the store on Sat night so I cast on with Regia in Canadian colors.

I like the look of this anyways. They look like an explosion perfect for a sock war. I had trouble figuring out the pattern it has an uneven stitch placement on the 4th row and you need to rearrange the stitches. Once I figured that out I was OK but I did need to frog the first try and start over.

I will have my socks in the mail tomorrow morning. They are going to Texas. I will ship them expresspost so she will get killed pretty soon.

This has been quite fun. There is a big group of warriors on Ravelry and they are all talking about this. Lots of people are already dead and many more coming soon as lots of socks are in the mail today.

So I had a fun knitting weekend. I was really tired last night and my husband was disappointed when I went to bed instead of knitting all night and getting the sock in the mail this morning. He is much more competitive than me.

Still at the Kauni

I am slow at posting to the blog lately. Life is tooooooo busy. I have been working on Meika's Kauni cardigan. I have the body finished and steeked and the buttonband finished. I did her buttonband like mine with a steek at the top and bottom. This method keeps the colour the same on both sides of the button band. I am now working on the sleeves - I should get this sweater finished this week baring all disasters.

I got in the Lorna's Laces exclusive Fun Knits colours this week - Quadra Island, Fun Knits and Olympics in shepherd socks and in fleece. Wow is the fleece ever amazing. The fleece come in 10 oz pack of 100% wool. My friend Vyvyan spun 2 skeins and I spun 1 skein of the Quadra Island colour so far. It is really nice. Spins very nicely. I will be ordering more of this in the future.

I will get the sock yarn posted on the internet later in the week with a new sock pattern from Mary Tanti.

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.