Mom's newest

I'm up at camp and Mom showed me her newest projects. Her neighbours, Nan & Dave, are expecting new twin grandbabies and asked Mom to knit them each a sweater, so here they are and excuse my feet!

Mom used the new book "Need A Baby Cardigan?" (which we'll start shipping next week) and the "Need A Hat?" book for the hats.
-Lyn

We're off to TNNA!

Deb and I are off to the TNNA show today with our new book: NEED A BABY CARDIGAN?

Super cute baby in a pretty cardigan! This new book is the third in the "Need A ... " series of books. The first two were Need A Hat? and Need A Sock? This series is a "multi-gauge" approach to each topic. So, for example, the new Need A Baby Cardigan? provides you with a range of cardigans (with colour, textures & lace) in 4 sizes (newborn to 18 months) in NINE (yes, 9!) gauges from sock yarn right up to chunky weight.
We'll be providing support and taking orders with Barb from Up North Fiber Arts Supply, our U.S. Distributor. Here's another shot of the cutie from the book:

-Lyn

Need A Sock?

Did you think our sock book had gone away? Nope! Here's the front cover as it stands today.

Deb and I are up at the cottage (camp) and we'll be working on edits and pictures this weekend. Still lots to do!

Want to see more pictures? 

Don't these look totally comfy?

Mmmm, don't you just want a pair?
The pumpkin pair are in our Cabin Fever Silk & Silver hand-dyed.

How about a manly pair?

OK, back to work on the pictures!

-Lynda

It's Here!

Yes! Teens & Tweens has arrived! Here are a couple of images from the book. I'll post all the colour pages on the gallery on the web site.

The Cabled Hoodie above, Kendra's Tunic below:

The Waffle Scarf & Mittlets, below left, Mirror Stripes Pullover, below right & bottom left, and the Tam & Zigag Scarf bottom right:

Now to update the web site!

-Lynda

Teens & Tweens

While Deb and I are working on the editing I thought I'd let you see the cover! It's a family affair, the girl on the left is Thomasin, daughter of Sophy, our Shipping Goddess and accessories designer. Michaela, top right, is the daughter of our photographer, Leanne, along with her girlfriend. The middle boy is Oscar, Sophy's nephew. The boy at the bottom right, is Leanne's son, Chris! 

The cover and inside colour pages went to the printer today and fingers crossed I got it all right. We actually print on two different presses - the colour pages on a huge offset printer that prints a gazillion pages a minute and the inside pattern pages on a smaller digital printer.


OK, now back to editing as Sophy found some changes I need to make!


- Lynda

New Year plans

So the new year is upon us. Happy New Year to you. Do you have any big plans for your knitting in the next year?

I have decided that every day I am going to spend some time on playing around with design ideas. Today I spent some time setting up for an idea I have for a better fitting raglan. I'm playing with the line of the raglan and seeing if changing it a bit makes it fit better.

Nothing new here so far, regular set-up for a raglan with short rows to make the V. I don't think the V-neck is going to work out as it is. But that's what exploring is for, to find out what does and, in this case, what doesn't work. I have started the raglan in the normal way, increasing 2 sts at every raglan line, and then I am going to change the degree of slant by changing where and how much I increase. In a day or two I should have the yoke to a point where you can see what I'm trying to do. I've started it and maybe by tomorrow it will show better.

Yesterday I worked on my Teen cardigan for the Teen booklet. One more buttonhole done.

I realized that there is no button on it so you'll have to take it on faith that there are now 4 buttonholes finished. Those are my milestones, the buttonholes and my goal is to knit to one more buttonhole every day. Long projects need some way of determining progress don't you think?

My swirl sock testknit, the prototype which Lynda got for her birthday, is nearly finished. I'm going to have real 'second sock syndrome' on this one since I've already knit one pair. I suppose it will actually be 'fourth sock syndrome'.

But I do need another pair of socks.

I'm not going to pull out everything I'm working on in one day, it's way too overwhelming. Over the week I'm going to see exactly what I have started and how I'm going to set myself up to get it all done. I guess this is what I have decided to do with my knitting for the new year, prioritize and organize. Hopefully it lasts more than one week. How about you, any plans?

-Deb

P.S. Comments
The blue shawl I knit is very similar to the Forest Canopy Shawl (you can find it on the internet) and based on Evelyn Clark's book "Knitting Lace Triangles". Triangle shawls are a lot of fun to do but they are way more fun when you get a stitch pattern which you like knitting. I really like the leaf patterns. I find them easy to follow so I can tell where I am whenever I pick up the shawl to knit a couple more rows. For me, that makes it much more likely that I will finish.

Wow!! Vogue Knitting ....

Yes! Our new hat booklet, "Need A Hat?" has been reviewed in the Fall 2009 issue just out. WooHooo! See page 20 "Made in Canada" by Lee Ann Balazuc. Pretty exciting stuff.

- Lynda

Need A Hat?

Yes, it's here! Hot Off the Press!!

After a fair bit of technical hair-pulling the booklets arrived Thursday afternoon and Sophy and I immediately packed them up and shipped them to Sturbridge, MA, for me to sell at the trade show next week (and hopefully for Deb to show and sell when she does her classes at Reba's store The Fiber Loft in Harvard, MA). On Friday we sent off our first store shipment to Diane of Georgetown Knitting & Crafts. Karen, of SheepStrings in Dwight ON, stopped to pick up copies to take to the Knitters Frolic Show in Toronto and for Miko and Jennifer at The Purple Purl.

As an interesting aside, Karen stopped by my house on the way home from doing the show (mainly to get fed I think) and told me that people had trouble believing that they could use ANY yarn for ANY hat in the booklet as much as Karen assured them they could (Karen is one of the designers in the book, see page 45, hat #10 so she knew this was true, lol). They bought the booklet on faith ... and hope. I think they'll be pleased.

I've put more detail and bigger pictures on the Cabin Fever web site if you want to go have a look!

-Lynda

Just wanted to update with an email comment from Diane:

Hi Lynda and Debbie,
Seeing I am the first store to receive your new hat book - I will be the first to comment - What a great book!!! I think there is a hat there for everyone!! Good job!! I bet you do not ever want to knit another hat for a long time!!
Diane
Diane & Bob CrawfordGeorgetown Yarn & Crafts

170 Guelph St.Georgetown,

ON L7G 4A7Phone: 905-877-1521

Fax: 905-877-3614

knitting@cogeco.ca

http://www.canknit.com/members/dcrawford.html

2nd attempt at a slip stitch hat

Not too much knitting got done last week between getting everything ordered, organised and packed up for the Stitches East show in Baltimore, then shipping out books and things for the Rochester Guild talk and our book signing at Embraceable Ewe in Hamburg (both on the way back home from the show), all while carrying on with business as usual (and it is our busy season). And no relaxing on the weekend either as I had company!

But I wanted to try another slip stitch hat for our new booklet and the first attempt was not ideal ... you could barely see the pattern at all! So, here is the 2nd attempt. It's a "mock cable" slip stitch. I can't be bothered to use a cable needle for a 1 stitch cable and as I'm working in wool, I just slip it off the needle and hold it behind with my fingers. Works great and no constant seaching for that darn cable needle!

I'm having a hard time, as usual, planning the trip knitting. I'd love to take (and try very hard to finish) my pullover, I want to finish the mock cable hat and I'm winding some yarn to do some adult sizes of my new flap cap. The knitting is tricky because I hate having idle hands at a show but when I get busy, then the knitting is up and down and up and down and it's very easy to make a mistake (it is not at all unusual for me to rip out any knitting I've done while at a show unless it's a really easy hat or sock). And I really can't take anything I have to concentrate on! However, there's the LONG drive (we take turns) and the evenings in the hotel room ... And it's far too dangerous NOT to take knitting as then I end up buying yarn and starting something new! I've way too many things to finish before I start anything else new. Well, except for my Christmas knitting. :-)

I will have to make some decisions soon as we'll be leaving at the crack of stupid tomorrow morning.

Now I'm off to print off directions. I love Mapquest!

-Lynda

Stitches Mid-West

Megan Lacey and I are here in beautiful Schaumburg, IL for the Stitches Mid-West show. Here's Megan unpacking ....





and also, below, a picture of the Baby V part of the booth display. Our booth is right next to Shelridge Farms so that is fun for us as Buffy and Don Taylor are great friends that we don't see too often!

OK, off to the show!

-Lynda

Getting there!

I've been madly knitting away trying to get a shrug done for tonight. I'm going to a movie premiere ... yes, really, with red carpet and everything! Very exciting. My cousin Jim is a movie editor/independent movie maker and he did the editing and the sound for the movie "Cycle of Fear". So a bunch of the cousins are going to see the movie and attend the gala. Which means, of course, that I needed "something to wear". Ominous words yes? I have a pretty, spaghetti strapped, dress that I want to wear and had knit a lacy little tiny shrug in April, when it was HOT. As it is now very much cooler (yes, we had May weather in April and April weather in May) I suddenly decided on Sunday that I needed something a tad warmer. So I cast on. Now this week has been pretty frantic with getting ready for the show (see below) so not too much knitting time. This morning I cast off the bottom, now I need to finish two sleeves. What time is it?

I got the boxes packed and shipped (for the show) on Tuesday and Wednesday and I have been working on getting the booklet to a stage where I can have 5 copies made up by the printer as "dummies" to take to show stores so they can place orders. The deadline was Friday at 8:15am. I made it there at 8:31am. Don't ask how much sleep I got the two previous nights. I've also been working on getting the new patterns ready to show as well - and need Deb to finish knitting hers so we can get photographs! Here's a photo of my new (really easy) reversable cable afghan (knit in our Northern Lights 100% wool). Quite pleased with it.

Lynda

Baby 'V' Booklet

I'm just working on the layout of the new baby booklet and thought I'd post a "rough" of the cover. This is not the final by any means but the picture is too cute not to show off!

This is Keegan, in Bernice's cardigan. How can you resist her or the sweater?

We're not yet sure how big the booklet will be as Deb is still madly checking the patterns. Then she'll be test knitting them, then I'll get them for layout. We decided to add a hat as well and I'm just writing that up now. Sometimes we do have trouble stopping!

This image will be in the Fall Issue of Vogue Knitting in their special advertising section. This issue is featuring knitting in Canada so it seemed appropriate to put an ad in.

Lynda