Christmas clean-up!

Christmas 2013 will be remembered as one of the craziest seasons in recent memory.  We certainly will all remember the weather here in Southern Ontario.  The shop lost power for about 24 hours, which was not too much of a problem as those were on the Sunday before Christmas.  We had planned to open the shop on Sunday afternoon and then again on Monday for those last minute Christmas gifts and holiday knitting,

Sunday morning we woke to ice, everywhere! Church services were cancelled, downtowns closed their streets and malls were empty.

Here at home the main farm had electricity, but the ice had taken down trees and large branches needed to be cleared from the driveway before the Milk Truck arrived by noon.  The barn and house on the other property had lost power which meant no water or way to feed animals, The hydro crew restored power to that property on Christmas Day.  Fortunately we have a tractor driven generator and they were able to feed and water animals, but it could not run all day leaving the animals without water for many hours.

As I drove into town on Monday it was hard not to be affected by the devastation that the ice had caused. Trees sliced in half, roads covered in branches, beloved shrubs flattened. It took hours to chip away at the ice on the walk at the front of the shop.  Conversations always included 'do you have hydro?', Families slept together in rooms with gas fireplaces and found creative places to find warm running water.  Power outages were indiscriminate, it did not matter whether you lived in an old house, new house, big house, small apartment or on the 6 th floor. Once out you waited your turn and hoped it would be soon!  

The utility companies worked tirelessly and it must have been frustrating to have to wait, I know it was for us and the other barn. I admire those workers who have work on those days and nights when we are told that the best place to be is in your own home, many missed Christmas with their own families.

Our family was able to celebrate Christmas Day together once 'The Girl' arrived on the train early in the afternoon.  We enjoyed a Christmas pot-luck with 'The Farmer's' family the next day. Friday we drove 'The Girl' back and we spent a couple of nights in her city relaxing in a warm hotel with clean running water.

'Clean running water?' 

Although we did not loose power during the ice storm we encountered a problem with our well. The water had been contaminated with surface water and it made the water completely unsafe.  So no baths, dish washing or laundry.  They pumped out the well on the 24th and the 26th we added 2 jugs of bleach, I washed some of 'The Farmer's' work clothes and when they came out of the dryer it was like a whole new wardrobe, every item was a new colour! 

Today is Monday, the water is somewhat normal, but we are still using bottled water for anything that is  consumed.  There is a pot of turkey on the stove and I am finishing up some knitting.  

It's hard to believe that all those things happened in just a week,

Hope you found ways to celebrate with your family and friends and wishing you good things in 2014,

See you January 2nd!

Really Quick!

Sorry about blog silence, it only means that life has been very good but hectic!

The shop is a busy place.  Customers are enjoying the new expanded space and the opportunity to see more of the inventory we actually had but all stuffed into the one small shop.

There is a downside of all this new found space, more floors to clean, more snow to shovel more sinks...you get the picture.  Keeping up with everything is taking up more of my spare time.

So it's Sunday, my day off from the shop!  I have shoveled the walk and purchased some new things that will hopefully stop the windows from fogging up and checked the space for a those things that have been known to happen when we are away.

I am at home waiting for 'The Farmer' and 'The Boy' to return from repairing the water pipes at the barn  (frozen again) and we can put up the tree.  Decorating can wait until sometime this week.

If you have been following on Facebook I hope you have participated in at least one of the Knit-a-longs we have created.  They don't take too long to do and we hope to have at least 5 items knit before the 25th.  (It was going to be a lot more, but that was just being way too organised for even me!)

Talk to you soon.

Please note the shop hours posted on the sidebar!

Five!

Soper Creek Yarn Celebrates 5 years this week.  It's hard to believe that we have been here for this long and how much we have changed!  All in good ways.

The shop has tripled its inventory and doubled in size and added staff.  The merchandise has changed and evolved into a unique collection of yarn and fibers.

Friday, tomorrow, is Moonlight Magic.  This event is one of the Downtown's favourite.  A time to visit the shops in Downtown Bowmanville when they are at their finest.  Fully stocked and ready for Christmas shoppers.  Some have special events and everyone is ready for the season.  There is a tree lighting planned at the Town Hall, with music and entertainment.

The shop will be open until 10 pm. Visit us anytime on Friday as we will have specials on a couple of yarn lines and gift items.  During the evening there will be treats and a beverage to enjoy.

  

 Join us, bring a food item for the Salvation Army and enter a draw for a prize!

Thank you for 5 wonderful years!

Soaked and shaped!

The Baba Tree Baskets are drying in my living room today.  I have printed the tags and tomorrow they will be at the shop!  These make the perfect gift for almost anyone on your list.  Gregory has actually made a list of 108 ways you can use a Baba Tree Basket!   I love #27!

As today is the 25th I don't really need to remind you of the time left to get all those Holiday things done.

One thing I have done is my Christmas Holiday schedule:

We are keeping our regular Tuesday - Saturday hours of 10 am - 5 pm.  I need Sundays and Mondays for my own life!

However:

There are a few added times, the shop is open:

Sunday December 22nd : 1pm - 4 pm

Monday December 23rd :12pm - 4 pm

Tuesday December 24: 10 am - 3 pm

The the shop closes for Holidays from December 25 - January 1st!  

Road trip!

We went on a short 'holiday', 'The Farmer' and I.  It was our Anniversary (29 years) and his Sunday off.  We left  Sunday morning and headed north and west.  We stayed in a lovely hotel overnight, the weather was frightful.  The dinner out was a nice treat.

On the return drive home we just happened to stop by the Koigu wool designs workshop!  We chatted with Taiu and realized that through her association with Canadian Sheep she knew many of our neighbours!  The agricultural world is not very big.

I got to go through the stash and came home with a lot more than I had planned. I hope you will like them as much as I do!

We did get a bit of the tour of the workshop, it's amazing that all this colour and creativity is made in an ordinary building in the middle of 'Gods Country' and that it travels all over the world! We should be proud of these Canadians!

During the drive home we encountered: rain, sleet, hail, snow and sunshine!

There are bags to unpack!

See you soon!

Learning opportunity!

The most common phrase heard in the shop: "I can knit but I don't know how to fix my mistakes!"

The only way to learn how to fix the mistake is to actually try, or find someone who will show you and then attempt it yourself.

We all make mistakes, I make a lot.  Most projects have at least one 'learning opportunity'. 

This shop sample was going along quite nicely until I realized that I had skipped a yarn over about 8 rows back.  I could have ripped back the 8 rows and re-knit them but why not try to make the repair and if it didn't work I could just rip back?

There should be 18 stitches after the marker!

 Dropped the stitch before the forgotten yarn over, created an extra stitch and used a crochet hook to re-knit the two stitches, it got a bit tricky to recreate the purl ridge.

Blocking will take care of the un-evenness.

The yarn is Cascade Casablanca, the pattern is Urban Lace Infinity Cowl. (A free pattern on the  Cascade website.)

For those of you that really know me will be surprised at my choice of pattern, I have this issue with the 'feather and fan' stitch pattern. It's not because it is difficult, it's actually very easy; it's that when I first worked in the Yarn Department at Rickaby's almost 30 years ago the most popular pattern in the shop was a feather and fan afghan made with 4 colours of worsted weight yarn.  5 balls of 1 colour, 4 of three others...

Perhaps if I continue to 'practice' this simple pattern the better I will feel about it!

See you soon!

Matchy Matchy

I finished the mashed potato socks in record time, 8 days!  I was able to get them to almost perfectly match.  I only had to pull out a few feet to get to the right place to start the second sock.  Thing is it doesn't really bother me when socks don't match. 

I was commenting to someone about the fact that it is rare that I get the designs to line up perfectly.  Then I started to look at the socks that I have made, turns out I really do manage to get them to match about 50% of the time!

These are Opal sock yarn, Vincent van Gogh series. 

 The rest are all discontinued yarns, some of these were made before the shop opened!

 I just noticed today that the socks match but my feet are different! 


On to the next project, we are off to the big City on Monday to look at the Spring 2014 line!

See You Soon.

Mashed potatoes

Today is Sunday and a day after Bowmanville's Apple festival and craft sale.  Despite the weather, yes it rained most of the day, we had a very busy day.  At the end of the day I was exhausted and was looking forward to a quiet weekend at home.    The problem I had was that I really wanted to knit, knit something easy, something new something that was like comfort food when you are not feeling well.  My body was exhausted but my brain was still busy with all the day's events.  

I needed to make something that was like a bowl of mashed potatoes when you are in need of some comfort food.

What did I choose? Socks, plain old 4 needle, top down socks! Not magic loop, not two at a time and not certainly not toe up! Something I have made many times! I chose pretty sock yarn that for some reason reminds me of my Maternal Grandmother.  

The pattern is my favourite written by the 'Yarn Harlot', I have made more than a dozen pairs using her well written recipe.

I also had a rather large helping of mashed potatoes for supper last night!

Appe Festival

This is one of my favourite Downtown events.

Bowmanville's Apple Festival and Craft Sale has been a popular event attracting people from all over the area;  not just visitors but vendors who scramble to get tables to show off their handmade merchandise.  The Downtown merchants use this event to either promote new lines or perhaps discount some of the previous years inventory.  We do a little of both!

An exciting addition to the event is a Food drive where we will fill James Printing and Signs huge trailer.  Let's see if we can fill it so full, that they will have trouble driving the trailer to the Food Bank!

We are accepting food and cash donations at the shop this week, if you bring in something or make a small donation you can fill in a ballot and enter a draw for a Namaste Messenger Bag.

The draw takes place on Saturday at 3 pm!

Visit us this week at we are marking down the clearance yarn and have new Classes posted for November!

See you Soon!

Days Off!

As many of you know my better half is a full time Farmer, known here as 'The Farmer'.  Days for him are early and long.  He leaves the house in the morning about 5:30, milks 50 something cows and spend the next 6 or 7 hours working on crops or repairing machinery  then goes back and milks the 50 cows again, coming home at about 7 pm these days.  He does this for 20 days and then has a day to himself,  or for the jobs at home.

Sunday was his day off, we had planned to sneak in another camping overnight, but the forecast of rain just didn't seem to make a one night stay feasible.

What to do?  We went to see how they did his job 75 years ago at Lang Pioneer Village, just outside Keene.

 There was some Threshing.

 There were a few guys doing blacksmith work.

The highlight for me was the Jacquard Loom.  They have built a new exhibit that when done will demonstrate how this amazing loom would have worked 100 years ago.  (The first computer card system was inspired by the technology used in this loom, as the threads are either up or down, 1's or 0's)

We spent the day wandering the grounds meeting  many lovely volunteers and had apple pie for lunch!

I brought home a souvenir:

I am not sure what I will do with this lovely yarn,  someone in Ontario raised the sheep, someone else sheared the sheep, then the fiber was sorted, cleaned, carded, spun and they dyed it (with natural dyes) and I bought it for $7!

Thank-you to those who work hard to provide us with all that we take for granted.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend.

When queues collide!

Sometimes projects just come out of nowhere .  This shawl began much like the 'Accidental sweater' I made this past winter.  I was perusing Ravelry and came upon a photo of a 'Daybreak' Shawl by Steven West it inspired me to do this sample!

Knitters  have 2 'queues', 2 lists for knitting; one is for the patterns they want to make and another for yarn or fibre that they want to use.   There are some Ravelry members that list the items they would like to knit in their 'queues', when you lurk on someone's page you may be surprised how many items are in their profile!  I will never totally divulge my list, it changes almost daily.

Sometimes the queues collide!  The perfect yarn, or combination of yarns with the right pattern.  Just like the Accidental Sweater this shawl gave me another excuse to knit with a favourite yarn.  

I found the design on a Friday and assembled all the ingredients  Saturday. Going through my needles I found that every 3.5 mm needle was currently occupied. I spied the Knitter's Pride Dreamz circular that came in a needle tasting kit I received during the summer, but it was only 60 cm  long.  I decided to start with the short needle anyway and figure out something else when I ran out of room on the needle.  

When I make a shop sample I try to stay as close to the pattern as I can, that way I don't have to bore you with the details on how I changed the design.  My main concern was that I would run out of the Noro Silk Garden before I completed the project.  I knit faster, it really helps.  The shawl increased, the yarn decreased and the 60 cm needle was absolutely filled with stitches!  

Not only did the needle hold the 400 plus stitches I was impressed at the way it performed.  For a wooden needle the point was very sharp, the stitches moved easily over the join and it was very lightweight.  I am not sure it would work for a very lacey pattern, but in this case it was perfect.

I did actually run out of yarn during the bind off, I had to pick back most of the stretchy bind off I like to use and do a modified version.  If you choose the same yarn you may want to adjust the pattern slightly to avoid this.  After the second attempt casting off stitches 30 cm of yarn remained!

If you read this before Wednesday October 2nd and would like to join us for a Yarn Tasting, contact the shop for more information.  ( 7 pm - 9pm, but you must reserve a spot $15.)

We have some exciting news about new knitting events coming, check the website pages for more information.

See You Soon.

Going around in circles!

Holy cowl!

These are just fun to make!

Cast on a bunch of stitches, join in the round (being careful not to twist!) and knit until it's long enough or you run out of yarn!

1st:  'Inspira Cowl' (I made the Mesa Version, but cast on 160 stitches).  Using 5.5 mm needles and Liberty Wool, takes 2 colours and 2 balls of each!

This pattern is 'West Desert Hood'  (cast on 144 stitches and worked until the end of the contrast colour ball)  I am making another with a few changes to the pattern.

Finally this really quick knit is 'Cherry Garcia', one ball of 'Inca' a new yarn that is 100% Superwash wool, very soft and great solid colours.  ($9.95)  I made the cowl in one day, maybe 4 hours!

The best thing I have learned about joining in the round is to  (you will have to think for a minute, but it works.) :

Cast on all the stitches, then turn your work and work the first row of the pattern without joining!  Then join your work and continue in pattern, being careful not to twist!  That extra row, that is just a little more stable makes it very easy to see if there are any twists.  All you need to do is hide that first 'blip' when you weave in your beginning yarn.

See you Soon.

Challenges!

How many of you noticed that the last two posts are pretty much the same, I didn't really notice until a couple of days after I wrote the second one!

Trying to keep you informed and entertained at the same time has proven to be a bit tricky.  I will try again.  

Like you I have stash. It is my goal to reduce the personal stash this year,  I have sorted it a little and have given away some of the yarn I know I will never use. I purchased a lovely yarn a few years ago and I when I purchased it I did not quite know what I would make with it, but I loved the colour and softness.  (100% organic cotton)    It came down to either giving away the yarn or giving away the project. 

During that really hot week in July we went camping, camping  without air conditioning!  The trailer was a very quiet and lovely spot, but it was hot!  I started this 'Chalice' blanket but the heat would not let me get much past the first ball, knowing that if I did not create a deadline for this project that is would hide in a WIP bag for a long time.  I decided that the only way to ensure that I would get this finished was to enter in the Orono Fair.  I finished it 2 days before the Fair.

The blanket did not win a ribbon, but now I have a lovely gift for the next baby worthy of an organic cotton blanket.  (The extra ball is for the matching sweater, next year's Orono Fair?)

I entered a few other projects, some came home with ribbons attached.

We always have an interesting discussion on the Judges opinions, but I would never like to be the judge in a competition,  

Included in the entries was a new cowl knit with my favourite super wash yarn.  Classic Elite's Liberty wool is the perfect yarn for this 'Inspira' cowl.  Pick 2 different colour ways and watch how they blend.

It's beautiful and squishy and super soft.

In the stash at the store there is a complete 'Yarn Tasting' kit from Classic Elite. Time to use that one up too!  Included in the kit are mini skeinettes of several yarns that are in the shop's inventory and a lovely door prize.  

On October 2nd from 7 pm - 9 pm 10 of you can join us!  The fee for the night is $15.00, it gives you at least a dozen samples to take home and the chance to win a door prize.

Sign up soon, 

Lessons?

Scheduling lessons is always a challenge, we have our schedule, you have yours!

Now that the shop has expanded and we have a lovely 'lesson' area we are going to try to get our schedules to line up.

Every other Wednesday is 'Knitt'n Night', a group of a dozen or so meet at the shop to catch up and work on projects together.  ( 6pm - 8 pm)  Since we are here and the shop is open Helen will offer a Knitting Basics class.  From 6:30 - 8 pm.  Helen will help you through some of Knitting's basic skills, there is a limit of 3 for each class and for September there are only a couple of spaces left, you must reserve your place in advance. 
September 11, 25; October 9, 23.

Gwen has scheduled a basic sock class that will run Saturday Mornings from 10:00 am - 11:30am.  (September 21, 28 and October 5th)  The fee for the session is $45 (plus HST)  Pattern and Yarn to be purchased in advance from Soper Creek Yarn.  Payment ensures your spot in the class.  (maximum 6 students)

Regan is planning to join us on Tuesdays, hoping to offer a Knitting clinic from 12:30 - 1:30.  Sign up and bring your knitting or spinning projects and Regan can get you going again!  The fee for the session is $15, reservations are required.

On September 24th, Regan will teach a basics in lace knitting, from 10:30 - Noon.  The $25 fee includes yarn!  Class Limit is 6 and we need 3 to get started!  Reserve soon!

That's the beginning, we are planning a daytime knitting group we just have to come up with the right day!

That's it so far!

See You Soon.

Routines!

Next week is September!  I am looking forward to a more regular schedule.  When the kids were little we had our daily plan:  Get up, go to school, do the after school thing, have supper go to bed.  Wednesdays was Piano Lessons;Thursdays were for Junior Choir; and Guides and Cubs and 4-H filled the rest of the week.  The summers were more chaotic, baseball, soccer, 4-H and jobs kept everyone hopping..

This past summer routine went out the window, store renovations, mini vacations, special events!  Even the drive in requires a new plan, the bridge is being repaired on our road, so I have to go North and over to get to town.  Forgetting means you have to go home the long way.

Sometimes taking a new turn, trying new things is a good way to get your creative juices going.  September is a great time to think about learning something new.  You asked about lessons and so we have made a plan, it certainly needs some adjustments, your input is greatly appreciated

 Lessons, workshops and Clinics!  Opportunities for you to learn a new skill and meet some like-minded artists!

We are starting slowly:

 Knitt'n Nights will now have a Knitting basics class with Helen.  Its a small group, just 3 participants and $15 for 90 minutes of instruction.  You choose which Knitting technique you would like to learn and Helen will get you going!
(September 11, 25th, October 9, 23rd.  6:30 - 8 pm)  Payment ensures your spot in the class.

Socks with Gwen:  Saturday Mornings: September 21, 28 and October 5.  10 am - 11:30.  Basic top down construction of a sock, must be able to knit and purl.  Choose either, 4-5 needles or magic loop; make a Christmas Stocking, work sock or traditional fingering weight sock.   $45 (plus HST) and materials.( Pattern and yarn must be purchased in advance, from Soper Creek Yarn, and yarn ready to use prior to class)

Regan has offered to teach Lace on September 24th (10:30 - Noon) or Cables on  October 15th (10:30 - Noon).  For those who would like to learn to spin your own yarn she will also teach you everything you need to know about using a drop spindle on October 26th  (12pm - 3 pm)  ($75 includes materials, drop spindle and fiber!) 

Tuesday's we will try a knitting clinic with Regan.  12:30 - 1:30 pm, bring your current project or start something new and Regan can get you on track.  $15 per session and there is a limit of 3 per class.

Reserve soon and pre-payment insures your place in the class.

That's the plan so far!

Baskets from Africa!

They are back!

When the shop opened 4 years ago I was looking for an interesting product that would add  to the displays around the shop and be something that no one else locally would have in their stores.

The Baba Tree Basket company was based out of Canada then but Gregory, the chief basket guy, found it difficult to be both in Ghana overseeing the production and in Vancouver overseeing the distribution.   He closed the Vancouver warehouse and moved back to Ghana.  It's taken a couple of years to sort things out and now they are back!

In January he started sending emails to everyone that bought baskets, telling us that we could order from him in Ghana and he would send them through Ghana Post.  It was really easy he said, I was skeptical.

In July, after we opened the new space, I took the plunge and another big leap of faith.  I 'wired' a big chunk of money to Gregory in Ghana and waited.  

This is how they looked when the Parcel Guy from Canada Post delivered the bag.  (he said something about it looking like a mail order bride???)

 

There were 28 baskets in this sack.

 All neatly stuffed into each other,

 or flattened by pushing the bottom of the basket into the handle.

 I just had to pry them apart and reshape them.

A soak in warm water for 30 seconds and they go back to the way they were made.

What was the final decision to get the baskets? It was this picture of a 13 year old girl in Ghana who makes baskets for Baba Tree.  She makes small baskets and with the money she earned she was able to purchase a bike!

 As I look at each basket it's nice to know that very few people have handled the basket and that a good chunk of the money goes back to the maker!

Come and see the selection. They are everywhere!

If you can't decide why you need to purchase one maybe this will help!

See You Soon!

Moonlight Madness!

Friday is Moonlight Madness!

Come visit us on Friday (anytime)  and see what's new for Fall!  Sign up for a Lesson or 2 and some special events are planned.  (We are still figuring that out.)

We have new yarn added to the clearance area, a lovely alpaca chunky blend has found its way into the shop at a pretty price.  Some of the previous sale yarn has been further reduced to make sure it finds a new home.

 This is a street event the parking is limited to the side streets, but the buskers do a great job keeping everyone entertained!

More later.....See you Soon!

Finishing!

Sorry for the blog silence, there hasn't been much to say.  Renovations continue and we are slowly running out of clearance yarn, which is a good thing as more Fall/Winter yarn is arriving today!

I am trying to finish up some of my projects.  One weekend I dedicated all my knitting time into finishing this Koigu linen stitch scarf.  It's made with the Silk and Cotton Handpaint from Misti Alpaca. 

 The colour is one that just returned into stock last week.  It's a heavier version. I used a bigger needle, less stitches and applied the fringes after completing the knitting.   The most amazing thing about this pattern is that I have now created 4 scarves.  I am one that doesn't like repeating projects, but this will be done again.  It is monotonous; but there is something about the colours that just make you want to continue as they are forever changing.  (I am a 'fabric' person, I love texture and colour and the way fabrics drape and handle. This project has all of that!)

The front of the new space is getting a bit of a makeover.  The owner of the building is James Printing  and Signs and they are creating some lovely graphics for the windows.

We had a lovely visit with The Girl, The Boy and their friends over the weekend.  They live 6 hours apart so this was the first time they saw each other since Christmas.

This week yarn arrives from many suppliers  so there will be boxes everywhere in the shop!

We are planning new things for the expanded shop, keep up to date with us on Facebook, you don't have to join to look at the page!  The website now contains an extra tab that shows you what is on Sale and the Events tab will keep you up to date with everything new!

See you soon!

What I learned on my Summer Vacation!

We had a lovely 4 days away, the most time away since 2009.  (Yarn Shop owner married to Farmer with grown up kids and aging pet)

Things I learned this time:

1. Making assumptions that because something has been in the trailer for 16 years doesn't mean it is still actually in the trailer, finding out when you are at the campsite is not fun.

2. How to make coffee using a paper cup, cone coffee filter and a 3.75 mm knitting needle.

3. Just because you ask someone to put the fan in the trailer doesn't mean it actually gets there.

4. Even though you pay your cell phone bills on time, doesn't mean that your cell phone will work in a huge part of the province.  (I am talking to you Telus!)

5. The Library in town is a very cool place and it has internet access.

6. The carpet in the library is a tartan (plaid), the town we were near was named after a family with the tartans name!

7. When looking at a map, remember that it does not show that the short walking trail to the showers is actually a huge climb up a steep hill, 10 flights of stairs!  

8. Menopause and heat waves are not a good combination.

9. I can still knit when it's hot outside, but when it's too hot I can do almost nothing!

That pretty much sums up the important parts of the holiday, I picked up 3 big boxes of yarn from my friends at Gather.  Back to work!

Random things I learned this week!

 Lessons learned:

• how to make a pocket in a little boy's sweater!

• sweaters for babies take very little time to make!

•  how to 'moneygram' money to a far away place to get some very nice things for the shop.  Right now it's a secret, but you will love them!

•  you must never assume anything in an old building, just because there is a hot water heater in your space doesn't mean that all taps will have hot water from that tank!

•  people who are very competent in their work still have fears about the things you find simple! 

• the ceiling in the shop only ever 'finds' a leak three days before you close for almost a week!

• going on holidays takes a lot of planning, you need the holiday to recover. 

Just reminding you that the shop will be closed next week so we can have a bit of a holiday.  (Closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday)

Back on Friday July 19,

I am sure you have stash or UFO's to finish!
(I know I do!)

The expanded space is proving to be a good place to visit, as it has air-conditioning!  We have a few things to finish, but we will wait until the heat and humidity are gone!

Charlotte's Web!

Painting with yarn!

I have to admit that I was a little bit unsure about stocking Koigu yarn in the shop. I had seen a few seen a few skiens but resisted the temptation of actually purchasing the yarn,  It is expensive, not machine washable and because the way it is dyed each skein is very different. Creating a large project means blending skeins to create a unified colour.

Since the first order we received last year I have made 4.5 projects using the yarn.  2 were linen stitch scarves, 1 sock and 1 Turkish bed sock.  

What draws me to this yarn is the colour or colours.

We have had 3 shipments of the yarn in the past year and I become more enamored with the yarn the more I use it. 

A small shipment arrived last week and I was excited to see that the pattern for 'Charlotte's web' shawl was included.  Helen and I spent a few minutes playing with the colours and came up with a range that looked promising.

The project was started the following day, 12 days later it was done.  I followed the pattern suggestions closely but  played with the colours a little as I wanted to make good use of the yarn.  There are just a few bits and one fairly large amount of the lightest colour.  If you wanted to include the fridge I would suggest following the colour blending almost exatly.

The resulting shawl is very lovely, the fabric has a great drape and the colours blended beautifully!

We made up kits with the skeins available of the yarn in stock.

I would like to try this colour blending again with another pattern, but not right away I have to leave some of the yarn for customers to purchase!

We are enjoying the new space in the shop!  Customers are finding great deals on some discontinued yarns.  A reminder that we are closed for a few days this summer.  (July 16, 17, and 18 that's very soon!)

Enjoy the sunshine!

Monday, how I have missed you!

The past six weeks have been crazy!  Yesterday the first Monday 'off' in about 2 months. I know I take both Sunday and Monday off, but Monday is my day.  I took it a bit easy by just hanging out at home and only running into town to put the garbage out and drop into Canadian Tire to get a new step ladder for the new half of the shop.  I stopped at Price's Market on the way home to pick up some plants for the pots out front and the garden at home! (There really wasn't time for any thing extra at home)

How else did I spend my time?

I knit!  

A very small order arrived into the shop last week, it contained one colour way of Koigu sock yarn, 200 mini skeinettes and the pattern for a shawl I've been wanting to make for a long time,  

My goal is to get this one done quickly and then go back to the other projects waiting to be finished.

Renovating the 78 side of the shop has taken all the extra time we had and the Sidewalk sale and Summerfest made last week completely crazy.  The new space is going to work really well, the added display room means that more yarn is visible and that it's more self serve. The added class space at the back means that lessons can be taught during shop hours and that we may be able to have a daytime knitt'n session.  (Some took it upon themselves to meet up on Friday night during the Sidewalk sale, it was nice to have them come!)

There are a few repairs to make and some re arranging yet to do and we hope to get those complete sometime in the next month.

The clearance yarn will remain out until new fall inventory arrives in August, there are some pretty amazing deals out there.  The $1 a ball bucket keeps getting filled up!

See You Soon.

Re- merchandising

Painting is just about done,  it's nice to get down to the fun stuff.  We have spent the past three days moving furniture and yarn!  Yesterday my hands were very sore from constantly grabbing yarn to move from one bin to another, but carrying a whole armloads of alpaca was really a lovely treat.

Wednesday I spent time re-organizing the needles and notions, they now take up the whole wall! 

Looking at all the space and the new fixtures the whole shop looks nothing like I imagined!  It's better than I imagined!

There is still quite a bit to do, 'The Farmer' is working on some stands for the cabinets to get them up off the floor, but he's been trying to finish planting soybeans and now the hay is ready to go!  

Next week is Bowmanville's Sidewalk sale and summerfest!  

More about that next time, when I have had a chance to figure that out! 

It was important that we keep the shop open and do most of the work during shop hours.  Please do not hesitate to come and 'bother' us, the yarn will wait!

See you Soon.