Tag Archives: knitting

Summer is here!

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Well I think summer has finally arrived.  I spent the weekend gardening and pulling lots of weeds.  Boy when we get good weather (finally!), things sure grow fast.  I have my plants all planted and my veggie garden in so now I just have to keep up on the watering and weeding.  I hope that means I will have more time for knitting.

Berroco has a pattern for a great tee knit in their new Modern Cotton and it only takes 3 or 4 skeins.  There is a little bit of lace detail around the neck and it is knit in the round up to the armholes.  Looks like a great summer knitting project.admit_lrg

June also means it is Knitting in Public day where we get to knit in public and not feel guilty.  I knit in public all the time and don’t feel guilty but some do.  I feel guiltier not doing something when I am sitting waiting somewhere.  Rose’s is hosting a Knitting in Public event on Saturday June 14 from 11:00 to ?. We will be outisde on the patio enjoying the warm weather after a long winter and knitting or crocheting.  Hope you will drop in and join us.

 

Christmas Open House

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jack 002

Well here we are again and it is time for our annual Christmas Open House.  If you haven’t ever been to our Christmas Open House, you have to come in and see the store at it’s finest – all decorated up for Christmas.  With all the twinkling lights and hundreds of ornaments all hung from the ceiling with care, it is a sight to behold. Christmas Open House is on Wednesday November 6, from 7 pm to 10 pm. Come in and see the full effect of the Christmas lights and get inspired to get those Christmas presents knit or pick a few ornaments or gifts.

In addition to being all gussied up for Christmas, we will be holding a draw for a basket of some lovely yarn.  What a great early Christmas present to start the season.  There will be select yarns on sale so come in and take advantage of our sale to pick up yarn for that special someone for Christmas (yourself maybe?).

We are working hard right now to get the store decorated and ready for the Open House and hope you will join us on Wednesday November 6 from 7 to 10 pm.

Almost September

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Can  you believe it is almost time for a new school year to start?  The summer seems to have flown by so quickly.  It is an exciting time of year – new books, new classes, new experiences, new yarn.  That’s right- time for all the new yarns to come out and we can try out all the new textures and colours.  We have had a few new yarns and books arrive in August, but September really is when all the new yarns should be available.  The new Creations 13/14 is in store already and I have already had a few customers come in to get yarn for projects from the design book.  We have some of the new Berroco Boboli Lace in stock but more will be coming.  We are expecting another shipment of Madeline Tosh any day now.   I have ordered some new sock yarns too from other companies as well.  The fall Debbie Bliss magazine should be in store sometime this week.  All these new things are so exciting!

September is a good time to start working on projects that you want to give as Christmas presents.  I know that seems like a long way away but how long ago does June seem?  Think how good you will feel if you have all your Christmas projects done so you can actually enjoy the Christmas season.  Every year I say I am going to start early so there isn’t the mad rush in December so maybe this will be the year I actually am prepared.  Let’s try and be good and stick to our plan.  Whether it is socks ( we will have the ready-made socks available again for those who want to cheat a little) or a sweater or a pretty shawl come in and see what we have for you project and let’s get knitting!

Assorted Knitting Things I Love

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Why do I love knitting?

I love all the beautiful colours in which yarns come.  Sometimes when I am walking around the yarn warehouse surrounded by thousands of balls of yarn of various colours and fibres it is just the colours of the yarn that call out to me.  Diamond yarn has a 100% silk lace weight yarn that the first time I saw it sitting on the warehouse shelf I knew I had to have it just for the colour.  It was a multicoloured blue, yellow and black that was just so striking. I didn’t know what I would do with it but I needed to have that yarn.  Luckily many of my customers agreed with me but I bet most of them had an idea what they would do with  it when they bought it.  I don’t need to know what I am going to do with I just need to have that colour.

I love all the different fibres that you can get.  The Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran (unfortunately now discontinued, but we still have some in the store) is just so soft that I had to make something out of it.  It was the one when people asked for the softest yarn that  I directed them to.  Right now the Madeline Tosh sock for it’s colours and softness is one of my favourite yarns. It is 100% merino with a nice twist.

I love that sock yarn knits up magically into a pattern.  Sometimes you just have to keep knitting to see what will come up next.  People who don’t knit think you are so talented when it is really the yarn dyers who are so talented.

I love the click and feel of the needles as the yarn slides along them. A great pair of needles is essential to my knitting enjoyment.  The yarn has to move quickly and smoothly, no pushing or bunching allowed.  My needle of choice at the moment are Hiya Hiya circulars even when I am not knitting  in the round.  I like the short needle length that you get with a circular and that you can scrunch everything up onto the cable when you  want to put your project in a bag and not worry about the stitches falling off.

I love working on a pattern and seeing it slowly take shape.  I usually am impatient to finish the project so I can see how it will look but  I often stop and just look and feel the item I am working on and think this all started as a ball of yarn and now look at it. It seems almost magical the way the yarn twists and turns to make all the stitches in a pattern.

I also love that knitting requires you to sit down and just be.

To follow or to forge out on your own

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When you start knitting something do you follow all the directions to a tee or do you put in little touches of your own?  I think a knitting pattern is like a recipe.  Some recipes you have to follow pretty closely or your cake will fall, others have a little more leeway and you can leave out those ingredients you don’t like (onions- yuck!) or add in more spices if you like a little more zing.  With a knitting pattern, it is the same for me as in cooking.  There are the more complicated patterns with which you have to be pretty careful and follow every direction for the item to come out with the proper design and shape.  There are others where there is more leeway and you can add in stitches you like or change the shaping to your preference.  I like to make my sweaters longer so I always add length before starting my shaping but I will follow the stitch pattern if it is say a lace pattern.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t add a couple knit stitches here or there if I think that it will make the pattern look nicer.  Sometimes I can’t quite figure out which way a pattern is supposed to be done and try it a couple ways and end up with something I find more to my liking.  Then there are some knitting projects that I just look at patterns to find out general information like how many stitches have other people used to make a mitten with a similar gauge yarn or what is the pattern stitch they used to get a specific look but then use a different yarn and needle size.  So go ahead and experiment when you do your next project but make sure you write down what you have done or when you go to make that second sock or mitt you may not remember exactly what you did or if someone says ” I love that! Can you give me the pattern?” you won’t have to go back and  try and figure exactly what it is that you did.  Remember knitting is supposed to be something you do that gives you pleasure not something you need to fret over so go ahead and have some fun with your knitting.