The Road Trip continues to continue ...

We set out on Thursday to visit more stores. We stopped to see Helene at the Wool Emporium in St Stephen’s (and I completely forgot to take a picture, my apologies) and what a blast it was to walk in and the first thing we see is our books out on display. It's still such a pleasure.

After that we paid a visit to the local Tourist Information office for some directions and had a chat with Michelle of Fondle Knits's, Dad! It's a small world isn't it? Dad is very proud and Deb tracked Michelle down at the show later and had a lovely chat. Then we were off to St John to visit (another) Trish. 

Trish of Trish's Crafty Corner

 It's the kind of place where you just want to sit down and knit ... and guess what happened?

Cyndi, Deb & Alli

Having had a lovely break at Trish's shop we booted it back to St. Andrews. We'd been warned about driving in the dark as moose are a major driving hazard. Sadly we didn't see a single moose but we did see two white-tailed deer the next evening driving back to our hotel (we were driving, not the deer).

Up bright and early on Friday to set up for the show. 

 Ta da!

After setting up the show opened for 3 hours. There were a lot of seriously happy knitters! Anticipation was high for the weekend. There was a reception in the hotel after the show preview and we met up with our friends Elizabeth & janie h and inspected their goodie bags which were full of amazing stuff. Said "hi" to Lucy (Neatby) as she did book signings with Stephanie Pearl McPhee and Cat Bordhi (If you don't know Lucy, she's the one with the hot pink hair).

Donna, of Cricket Cove, is amazing. The show was beautifully organised and she gave us a wonderful welcome and a great position for our booth. We've had a tremendous weekend so far (it's now Sunday morning), Deb took a class, I watched a dye demo by the Hand Maiden (daughter of Kathryn) we got caught up with Kathryn (the Fleece Artist), we hung out with Amy of Good Karma Yarns (great yarn) and Diane and Susan from Lucy's booth, we've eaten lots of fish and tried out the various local beers. We'll be at the show till 3:00pm today, pack up the booth and make one more store visit on the way out of the province. Whew!

-Lyn

East Coast Road Trip continued!

But the day isn’t over yet (I'm still working on Wednesday)! We jump back into the car and arrive at St Andrews by the Sea, in time for a quick look before the sun sets:

Deb at sea ... tee hee

Thursday morning we head over to see where KnitEast is going to be held ... lovely place isn't it?

-Lyn

East Coast Road Trip

Deb and I set out on Monday to begin the drive to New Brunswick for the KnitEast show. Monday was Ontario, Tuesday was Quebec, Wednesday was New Brunswick. By Friday, we feel like we’ve been living in the car for weeks although it’s only been a few days. But you know we couldn’t resist visiting yarn shops on our way. Our first stop? Yarns on York in Fredericton, NB.

Trish’s shop is in a lovely old part of the city with tall ceilings and great window displays.

Then off for a wonderful lunch up the street and back into the car and on to visit the two John’s at the Briggs & Little Mill.Check out these two handsome men who work with wool all day long – how could you resist them?

Deb and I have been knitting with this traditional Canadian wool for years (our first patterns – back in 1998 I think - were all in Briggs & Little yarns), but we’d never been to see the mill till now. It was extremely interesting to see the mill in action and the processing of the fleece from it’s arrival in the mill through to the finished product.

John & John’s newest product 

is Soft Spun, beautifully hand-painted by the Fleece Artist (Kathryn) another Maritimer.

But must run - more tomorrow!

-Lyn

I got an answer to Julie's (from the comments) question. I thought I knew the answer but then I started wondering if maybe it would work in stocking stitch. I wanted to knit it up to see. And what I see is that bubble thing which isn't going to work.

Why did I need to use Garter Stitch for the 'back of neck square' I was trying to fill in?

Garter Stitch works because the gauge of the ridges is the same as the stitch gauge. As I worked this square in stocking stitch, I knit down from the shoulder, worked the increases at the raglan line which turned the stitches 90 degrees, work horizontally across the centre back, work increases at raglan line and then work up to the top of the shoulder where I join the stitches to the neckband and turned.
The stitches, as I approach the shoulder, are running perpendicular to the neckband so I'm attaching rows to stitches. Since garter stitch knits to 3.5 sts = 1" and 3.5 Ridges = 1" I can attach ridges to the stitches of the neckband with little distortion.

Now I need to make it look a little prettier.
-Deb

On the Road Again, you can sing along if you like. We're off to New Brunswick to the Knit East show. Should be a fun trip. I've got sweaters to work on and socks to knit. Lots to keep me busy when I'm not driving. Lots to think about even when I am.
My new sweater, which I thought would work out fine, did not. But I have a solution which I'm happy with and it almost works. Almost meaning some very slight adjustments are still needed and then we're good.

The front is the square I had envisioned. And now the back is a filled in square.

It's going to sit really well on the shoulders with this filled in back. The numbers work only with garter stitch so it's staying this way. I'm going to knit the full sweater on the trip. Hmm, now to decide what colour?
-Deb

Division of Labour and a BIG THANK YOU

When there's only two of you in the entire company, division of labour is both essential and encouraged. Deb is off working away on our newest book and also working on the course program for our Knitting Retreat on November 18th (if you've not gotten the info and wish to have it, click here.

I'm still unpacking and filling orders from back to back shows (the Knitter's Fair and our own trade show KnitTrade) but I need to step that up as I'm supposed to start packing up for our trip out to KnitEast as we'll leave for the show early next week.

Here's how we looked minutes before Knitters Fair opened:

And here's what it looked like about 3 minutes later!

You can't do a show of that size without serious help. Here's our team - they were tireless and cheery and we couldn't do a show without them!

Barbara, Zelda, Dana and Carolyn

Al and Paul were a huge help last weekend at KnitTrade (sorry, didn't manage to take pictures of our guys lugging tables and boxes about) and that may have been the only time they saw us all weekend! We also had terrific help from Dylan (Deb's son), our sister Heather & husband Mark, Sandy (intrepid guild member), Glenda our book keeper, Dana, Carolyn and Barbara (yes, those three were hard at work two weekends in a row). Barbara was actually at both shows to represent her company Denise Interchangeable Needles but she volunteered to help and was pressed into hauling boxes, setting up displays and packing, unpacking and packing again both weekends. Oh, and Brenda! from Grey Heron (one of our stores) came and helped me out in the Cabin Fever booth! 

So, although I started this blog saying it was just Deb and I? Well, it really isn't. We have amazing help and support from our friends and families (and yes, both guys are helping me pack orders and our trailer over the next couple of days).

-Lyn

I told you it wouldn't be impressive but there it is. A rectangle of knitting is the answer.
I want to make a sweater like this with a square neck on the Front and Back. But everyone who tried on the larger size hunched it up at the back.

So I'm going to fill in the rectangle at the back of neck with a rectangle of knitting.

The Front will be square and the back will have a square filled in so it will be up against the back of neck. This is the square worked first, break the yarn and then with new yarn cast on the Front, shoulder, pick up around the square and cast on the other side the same. At a designer get-together I was asking for advice and Fiona Ellis asked if it was possible to have the 3 sides of the rectangle be open stitches so you wouldn't have to picked up. Yes, it is possible.

So although I totally screwed up the numbers at the beginning (it is not an assymetrical front), this is it starting with the neckband, work the rectangle at the back and then work all the way around. Still some way to go but I'm getting there.

Onward.
-Deb