This Week!

A few things are happening this week:

Shop hours will begin to change but because of the activities this week here are the hours, just to be clear:

Tuesday: 10 am - 5 pm

Wednesday: 10 am - 10 pm. "What a Girl Wants" and Knitt'n Night from 5 pm - 10 pm. Come and knit and shop Downtown Bowmanville.

Thursday: 10 am (or maybe a little later) - 4 pm.

Friday: 10 am - 6 pm

Saturday: 10 am - 4 pm.

I bought a new toy this week. A special pricing gun that will only hold "Clearance" labels. It will clearly tell you what yarn is on sale and how much it is! No more asking questions! I have been going around the shop pulling up lonely dye lots of yarn and marking them with the bright red stickies!

There is an "Odds and Sods" bucket that will get replenished as it empties. Out with the Old..then there will be room for the New!

Hope you are having a lovely weekend.

See you Soon.

Quickly Friday:

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow, Saturday, the shop will close at 3:45. There's a Wedding!

It's been a lovely week, I booked some time off, the boss said it was okay and The Girl is thrilled with the timing as she is moving into a new apartment. (Guess what we will be doing that week!) July 10- 16 the shop will be closed.

Also:

If you are the Garage Sale type, and who isn't, there is a Gigantic Garage Sale. Proceeds of the sale go to raise money for the Stephen Lewis Foundation which supports Grandmothers in Africa who are caring for orphaned children of the Aids Pandemic.

Place: King Street Newcastle, next to the CIBC
Time: 9 am - 2 pm
Date: May 28..tomorrow!

Maybe I will see you there!

A Comedy of Errors:

The Lily of the Valley in our gardens are in full bloom, I wish there was 'websmell'.

After a busy week, I was looking forward to some knitting time. It's funny that I have to book time to knit! Picked up the Noro Garter stitch scarf I am working on only to find I have left a needle at the shop. (Of course I don't have another that size in bamboo and it does make a difference) Plan B: work on Multi Directional Scarf using the Liberty Wool, I got to within 3 feet of yarn from the end and run out! Not willing to buy another ball for 3 feet I decide to use the remaining of another colour, it's also at the shop. Plan C: work on the colour block scarf out of the remaining yarn challenge kits next colour in line must be the blue...guess where it is.

Plan D: Start the new shawl that I brought home as a treat to do after I finished the others. It uses a 5.5mm circular needle. Remove knitting from colour block scarf and use 5.5 mm straight needles until I get to the shop to get the 5.5mm Circular. Started it Sunday finished it Monday night! The Pattern is Seaweed by Grace Akhrem:

I have spent the last few days trying to be my own IT person. So far I have connected the two computers via a wireless router. I just can't make them talk to each other; Angela from up the street says they probably are talking to each other and they are talking about me! (Why can't she figure it out!)

Next week is June !st...that's a typo but I like it. 'What a Girl Wants' happens on Wednesday and summer hours begin!

(Same number of hours, just different!)

Tuesdays: 10 am - 7 pm (except knit nights open until 8 ish.)

Wednesday: 10 am - 4 pm

Thursday: 10 am - 4 pm

Friday: 10 am - 6 pm

Saturday: 10 am - 4 pm

This week, Saturday the shop closes at 4 pm, there's a Wedding!

Victoria Day Weekend!

First I want to thank those that came into the shop, this past week in particular. I had a huge monetary goal to reach by today and thanks to those that came and spent even a little I was able to meet challenge.


Those of us in Town who operate Independent shops jokingly laugh that we do this because we are 'independently wealthy'. We do this because we have a passion for what we do and feel that we can help our neighbours by providing services and products that have the quality and uniqueness that is not available at the 'big box' stores. (longest sentence so far!). Needless to say some days we wonder why, when in fact we could be doing something that probably pays better. But we continue because there are more good days then bad and most of our customers truly get why we do what we do. As downtown merchants we also would like to encourage more of you to shop locally. Did you know that for every $100 you spend locally $67 of those dollars stay in your community? (That funds: libraries, parks, soccer fields, playgrounds.....)

To encourage you to come and visit the Downtown, 26 shops and restaurants are staying open late on June 1st. Last November we held an event called "What a Girl Wants" it was such fun we decided to do it again.

Keep June 1st open, shop downtown Bowmanville, treat yourself and a friend to dinner out in the middle of the week. Should be fun.

What is Soper Creek Yarn doing that night? We will teach you how to knit. We will cast on the stitches for you and you can knit away for as long as you want on our sample projects. If you like you can take home the kit for $3 and keep going, you could end up with a lovely dishcloth. If you are a knitter, really you are if you follow this blog, then come a join the Knitt'n group!

Call your friends and come 'shopping'! June 1st, that's Wednesday, 5 pm - 10 pm.

Have safe weekend..what's left of it.

New this week!

Monday...my day out!

Toronto driving is not my favourite thing and with the price of gas it really doesn't make sense to drive in when they can ship it to me for less than gas/mileage/time. It is nice to go in a check out with what is new, and go diving into the sale areas of the warehouses. I came home with little of everything.

New to the shop is Triana Lux and Frill Seeker Precious Metals...sparkly!

Some new Alpaca lace Paints, one skein will make a shawlette.

Plus some novelty yarns that will make great accents for scarf knitting this fall!

This time of year many of you are heading into the garden and I won't see much of you again until the fall.

I too would like to spend some time with the daylight...watch the sidebar for changes into my shop hours.

There's more to tell you but it's time to go home!

Pictures later.

Conservation of Mass...

I am back in High school science class: "mass cannot be created or destroyed, although it may be rearranged in space and changed into different types of particles;" (Conservation of Mass )

I was wandering some of my favourite sites when I came across this cowl. I love this site and am glad that the shop is in New York and not anywhere near here, I would visit way too often!

I didn't want to make anything as heavy as that and use something I have in stock. Let's see cotton, thin with multiple colour changes? That would be NORO! The new Taiyo sock yarn that just has to be knit into a sample. You know how much I love Noro!

The plan was to make a long scarf about 60" that I could make into a tube by grafting the cast on and cast off edges. Did a small swatch and estimated that 40 stitches would do the trick.

I used Lucy Neatby's provisional cast-on then knit about 12 inches and weighed the ball. I had used 1/8 of 100 grams. That would mean I could knit 96" of scarf to use up the 100 gram ball, too long? Looking at my work I began to ponder: I could keep knitting and have a skinny lonnnng scarf or rip back add some stitches and make the scarf wider.

After looking at the original design I decided that I would be happier to start again and have a wider scarf.

I have now knit 14" and have used 1/4 of the ball. 56" perfect!

Back to the Conservation of Mass, it always amazes me how impressed people are when I weigh a garment to find out how much yarn it took, I actually can see a light turn on! (changing from one form into another!)

Well I guess it's back to work! Good thing I love this job!

See you Tuesday.

Kid friendly video...knitting!

Thanks Marie for the link!

Sorry to those who are on dial up!

Raspberry red, Lemony yellow, Orangey orange...

That was the phrase I kept saying as I merchandised the newest shipment of Berroco's Weekend Yarn. Bright fun summery colours in this lovely acrylic/ cotton blend. Machine wash/dry flat yarn. Quick knitting and lovely for that summer cardigan or new baby blanket!Some Free Patterns
Silly Rabbit...

my yarn challenge entry..a little late?

Have a lovely Monday, I am catching up!

See You Soon.

Maple Fest!

These events are always fun...tomorrow you will find added discounts to all the sale yarns....all sale yarn will be 50% off!

Come early!

Maplefest!

This Saturday, May 7th is Bowmanville's Maple Festival & all that Jazz. King Street will be closed to traffic from Scugog to George Streets. The Downtown will then be filled with all things Mapley! Many of the shops will have specials during the day.

We haven't decided what the specials will be, but they certainly will include the things that are currently on Sale!

I have updated the discounts:

Namaste Knitting bags..remaining stock 25% off (does not include buddy cases or snap cases!)
Mesa Chunky is now $3.50 each or 10 for $30
Tempo Chunky $3.50 each
Lett Lopi 30% off or 10 for $30.00

Shepherd Classic wool remaining colours $4.00 or 10 for $35.00 (was $6.95 for 100 grams)
Odds and Sods basket $2.95 each.

The shop is is a bit of chaos as 7 boxes arrived on Tuesday!
Come and See!

Catching Up Part 2

I promised to show our version of the Royal Wedding. About 6 weeks ago Mary was in the shop and I was reading an email from one of my suppliers promoting the book "Knit your own Royal Wedding". I jokingly said: "Hey Mary, want to knit a Royal Wedding?" The rest is history. A few favourite portraits, more to come. Prince HarryThe Archbishop Camilla

The Queen and Prince Phillip The Balcony Scene

Prince William and Kate.

We had a lot of fun...they just took way too much time. They will be in the window for the next week.

See You Soon.