Lessons and Workshops!

We had a meeting, my friend Gwen and I and we made some plans. (Gwen teaches knitting and is left handed!) We are going to offer 2 workshops, on Saturdays. (noon to 3 pm.)

October 24th we will do a workshop on 'knitting a round'. You will have the opportunity to learn the 3 main techniques of circular knitting, 4 needles, 2 circulars and magic loop. The shop will supply needles to use that day, but if you bring your own needles it would be helpful.

October 31st the workshop will be to help teach you how to fix your mistakes! Homework is required for this class, you will need to bring a swatch of knitting. (Instructions will be given when you register.)

These two workshops will be repeated again in November, cost of each is $30 (includes light refreshments!) sign up soon as space is limited. (We need 3 to fill the class and I run out of chairs after 6!)

Regular learn to knit sessions will be done on Wednesday mornings from 10:30 till noon and 'semi private' lessons can be arranged at almost any time, other than Saturdays! If we have enough requests for Saturday lessons we will arrange a class, minimum of 3 students.

I have been thinking about including a 'knit night' into the mix, once a month, every 2nd or 3rd Friday. ("Friday night knitting"...6 - 8:30..email me if you are interested!)

It redeems odd corners of disposable time,

Knitting, or crochet, is seen by others as a way of wasting time. Why make something when you can buy it cheaper? I knit because it uses up that bit of time when hands are idle: car rides, waiting rooms, watching television. Maybe knitters all have a bit of ADD pr OCD, so maybe knitting for some of us is the 'cure', for boredom?

I tend to watch a few favorite blogs one of them directed me to this page. It says a lot.

You are not wasting time, you are using all those bits that normally would be left empty!

New Things...and another favour!

The Yarn from my newest supplier has finally arrived. Some nice new stuff from Naturally and Classic Elite including Brooklyntweed's new book.


My friend Gwen has offered to teach a couple of classes on Saturday Mornings. (10:30 - 12 ish) the first session starts on September 26th, (Basic Beginners and because she is left handed she can teach those of you that are left handed how to knit!) ($30. for 3 sessions plus materials)

Tuesday (September 22nd) my husband has an appointment in Toronto... we are off to the big city for most of the day. The shop will open when we get back. Call ahead if you are heading this way, or wait until Wednesday.

It's a real juggle right now, the longer I can 'do it myself' the better for everyone.

When Bad things Happen!

Last week this came into the store, a customer's very first sweater for her first grandchild. The pieces were all knit ready to put together when they were accidentally involved in an altercation with a cigarette.
Can you help?
I really don't like messing with other people's knitting unless I know it would be easier to leave it and let me 'do it myself'. After some time I removed the bottom ribbing from the back and the knitter will have to re-knit the ribbing. Its not a perfect fix, but it will save the sweater. After finishing the bottom, we noticed another couple of 'melts' near the top. So back to ripping back a few rows. (If the sweater was made with wool, it would not have melted or caught on fire...more fuel for the 'put your babies in wool' theory!)

Monday's are for....

Root Canal! Enough said!

See you soon

My new favourite thing!

I have been working on the 'Ruffles and Ridges' shawl by Fiber Trends. Instructions read: ...loosely cast on 1095 stitches...yikes. (First tip, if you use long tail cast on, use 2 skeins to cast on the stitches, one for the tail, one for the cast on.)

I made my first one of these out of Marble Chunky, it required 2 of the big 200 gram balls. This version is made from Mirasol Chirapa, it will take 4 of the 50 gram skeins to finish the large version, which will actually be smaller than the previous small version. Lots more knitting but a better quality shawl for not much more money.

This aging brain, or midlife fuzzy brain, was just not handling the endless stitch counting until I broke open a package of these:



















Fortunately I have an amazing stock of all kinds of stitch markers right now. I kept ordering them from various suppliers only to have them back ordered again and again. Then they all came. I have every kind you can imagine. You can use all kinds of things to mark the stitches, thread, pins and the fancy jewellery ones. Just give in and use them, takes away a lot of the frustration!


Mark every 50 stitches and counting is way simpler...sometimes its the little things in life that make all the difference.

Thank-you!

Thank-you to everyone who made it possible for us to close the shop for a week! Julie the key and phone person, Rich the amazing floor guy and Corry the perfect Dog/House sitter.

Saskatchewan is known for its endless blue skies:
(yes the picture is sideways... :)

great big fields filled with great big equipment and acres of food!

my husbands example of a great picture,

I improved it....

the car we rented was a pleasant place to knit
it came with a yarn holder

wheat fields make the perfect background to pretty knitting:

We arrived home, tired and relaxed

and I came home to the shop to see this....perfect!

We're Baaack!

This past week has been a totally unique experience for me, and there is lots to tell you, but I am catching up on everything.

The shop will be open tomorrow, Sept 8, but be prepared for a bit of chaos. Rich, the amazing floor cleaner guy, came and polished my floor. In order to do that we cleared anything that moved into the back room. The shop looks tidy, but all the interesting stuff is put away. Mary is back in the morning to help.

See you soon.

Where did she go!?

We are literally in the middle of no where Saskatchewan. My son is working on a Combine Harvest Crew. He is cutting wheat just west of Estevan Saskatchewan.

Last night my husband and I found him in the biggest wheat field I have ever seen. The crew is cutting today in a field that is 600 acres, then moving to another 500 acres later. My husband took off like a flash at the opportunity to ride with his boy. I sat in the car and knit. Wendy came with supper for the boys, she has been feeding my boy since June. George, one of the combine drivers, invited me to ride with him for a bit. The ride went on and we got farther away from the car, the sun set and now its dark and we are even farther from the car. Finally the two way radio said, 'Could you drop my mom off with the cart driver, Dad thinks they should get going.' Chris the cart driver turns up and they move the grain from the combine onto the cart and I hop into the tractor cab for the drive back to the car. As I get in I realize that he has just finished a cigarette and I am 'allergic' to the smoke. I make a quick excuse to get out and then think 'well its a beautiful night in the middle of no where' and I start heading towards the car, about 1/2 kilometer. Of course at this point everyone else panics. "Where did she go?...we lost your Mom!!' Orders were sent to send the service truck out to look for me. They find me, but really I was quite enjoying this trek in the middle of this big space.

So here I am in the middle of no where...having a blast.

See you soon