More White Christmas

I saw Irving Berlin's White Christmas at The Sony Centre last night. It was wonderful. The singing and dancing were great and the costumes were beautiful. We even got to sing along with White Christmas at the end. It included several songs that aren't in the movie. All in all, it was a good evening. Even the weather cooperated.

I brought my sister's sweater in to take a photo on a mannequin but the camera's battery was dead. Darn. I'll take a shot of my sister wearing it. I ended up putting buttons that I bought in Estonia six years ago on it. The knit ones just weren't working for me.

As I predicted, I went shopping in the warehouse. More Maxi Tosca. I think it will be something modular.

This will definitely be my last post for 2007. I hope everyone has a happy, restful holiday season.

Happy Knitting!
Susan

Winter Wonderland

We had the biggest snow storm here in Toronto since 1999, the infamous year the mayor called in the army. Needless to say all my plans for the day fell through. It started when the restaurant we were to have lunch at called and cancelled because they weren't opening because of the storm. Then my friend found out we could exchange the White Christmas tickets. We listened to the Vinyl Cafe at noon and during the news after it, it was announced that both shows were postponed until January 13. We're going to see White Christmas on Thursday night. So I guess it all worked out. It sure looked beautiful after the snow fell. This is a shot out our front window into our courtyard.

Chris brought his dogs, Molly and Winston, into the office today. They are very cute. We always enjoy having them here. Molly was a good girl and posed for me by our Christmas tree.

Winston, on the other hand, need a little coaxing. That's Caroline with them. She said she'd be in the picture as long as I didn't get her head in the shot. She's shy.

The foodfest continues at Estelle. Everyone has been baking. I'm always surprised we don't all gain 20 pounds in December. It is all so yummy.

I finished my Arequipa fingerless gloves. There is a lot left over so I'm going to come up with a matching scarf. Jennifer kindly agreed to model them for me.

We're leaving for PEI on Sunday so I have to figure out what knitting I'm going to take with me. I know I should go through my stash and take something from there but have a feeling it will be easier to go shopping in the warehouse. I'll let you know what I decide on.

Happy Knitting!

Susan

Arequipa

I'm such a bad blogger. It's been over a month since I last posted. We've been really busy. We got our new alpaca sock yarn in last week. I just finished a lace shawl last night out of it. It took less than one skein.

I'm going to give it to my sister's mother in law for Christmas. I hope she likes it.

It was knitting group at Mary's last night. We had a pot luck first. Really yummy, a great variety. After dinner we went downstairs to knit and have show and tell. This is one amazing group of knitters, very prolific. I showed the almost finished scarf. Then we played a game. Mary and Lynn had wrapped several presents then Mary gave each of us a playing card. Her daughter then called out numbers and the person who had that number chose a gift. The next person could either choose a new one or that the first person's gift. It went on until the last person chose. It was lots of fun and everyone got what they wanted eventually. After I got home I wove in the ends and blocked the scarf. It was dry this morning. I'm going to do it as a free pattern. I'm also working on wrist warmers. They should be finished tomorrow or maybe tonight.

I've almost finished my sister's sweater. I have a few ends to weave in and knit the buttons. I'm not completely happy about the sleeves. I picked them up and knit them down. I think I'll have to do a bit of cosmetic work on it until I'm happy. I must remember to sew one of my labels into it.

I've double booked myself for Sunday. My neighbour had suggested that we go to see White Christmas. The 16th rang a very faint bell but I said the matinee would be fine. The next day I remembered that I was going to the Vinyl Cafe Christmas Concert in the evening. Brother. Oh well, I'm going to leave my car at the subway, take a taxi to the restaurant after White Christmas and then take the subway home after the Vinyl Cafe.

I love Stuart McLean. We went to the Sunday evening concert last year and it was so much fun. You never know what's going to happen. I think it is wonderful the way he showcases young Canadian talent.

We had pizza lunch today. That's always fun. We're closing next Friday at noon for our Christmas lunch and then not coming back until Jan 2. Where has the year gone?

I'll sign off for now. If I don't post again have a wonderful, safe holiday season.

Happy Knitting!

Susan

Book Launch

It's been awhile since I posted. It's been crazy, busy at work lately. Last week, I attended the book lauch of Fiona Ellis's Inspired Fair Isle Knits at the Textile Museum. Fiona had all her test knitters come up and show their work. I had two garments in the book. The first is this great halter top done in Young Touch cotton. That's yours truly holding it up.

The second garment I test knit was the pleated sleeve cardigan. Rebecca, the cover model, wore it that evening. It is made with King Cole's Antitickle Merino Superwash. It is one of Fiona and my favourite DKs. It is lovely to work with and comes in a great colour range.

Fiona looked lovely in the groovy jacket she got at Marks and Spencer (don't you miss them being in Canada) on sale! Two of my favourite words.

It was a great evening. Fiona has done an excellent job on this book. I wonder what the next will be??? I keep hinting a slip stitch book would be great but we'll see.

Cascade 220 has finally arrived. It got stuck in the Port on New York, held up by the extra security and general congestion. Anyway, it's safe in our warehouse now and will be in stores in the very near future.

My sister has been hinting, not very subtly, that she hasn't received anything hand knit for quite a while. So I'm doing a very simple cardigan out of Tosca Jaspe. It's very simple, Chanel style, with garter stitch trim. I'm only going to put one button at the neck. It's the type of style my sister really likes and it is knitting up really quickly.

I'm also working on a baby matinee jacket for Lorena at the Naked Sheep's new baby girl. I'm using one of King Cole's newer patterns but knitting with Dale of Norway's Baby Ull. It's a superwash wool 4 ply and I'm really loving knitting with it. It's almost finished so next post (which hopefully will be sooner than this one) I'll have a picture of it for you.

It's a lovely fall day here. The leaves are looking very lovely. I think I'll go for a walk shortly.

Happy Knitting,

Susan

Exciting News!!!

I can't believe it has been a month since my last post. It has been very busy around here. I'll get to the exciting news a bit later.

A few weeks ago I was on the road again, this time to the Kawartha area. My first stop was to stop in and say hello to the ladies at Happenstance Books and Yarns in Lakefield. Lakefield is such a pretty town and the drive along by the river is beautiful.

From there I drove to Lindsay to Kawartha Yarns. I showed Naz the Fall collections and she showed me how to cable without a cable needle.

Last week was the first Downtown Knit Collective meeting of this season. Here's a shot of part of the membership.

Each September the DKC invites representatives from the various yarn distributors to come and talk about what's new and wonderful for the upcoming season. Normally Chris gives the presentation but he couldn't this year as we had a supplier in for a visit. So, I did the presentation for the first time. I focused on Twelve and our Alpaca Cashmere Tweed. From Lana Grossa it was their fantastic sock yarns. Lang's Tosca is an absolutely fantastic yarn. I love it so much I'm on my third garment out of it. Dale and Jo Sharp are wonderful classic lines and the big excitement is that we are now the Canadian distributor for Cascade 220 and Noni patterns. After all the presentations are done, members come up and fondle the samples. We have lots of free patterns that they can take with them.
As I mentioned, the big excitement is Cascade 220. We're starting out with 53 solid colours and 7 hand paints. I laid the skeins out on the big table in our show room in the order they appear on the shade card. Don't the colours look amazing?

It was knitting group last night. It really is an extremely interesting group of women. Kersti had finished the Argosy shawl. I'm thinking it would be lovely done out of Tosca. I'll have to check it out. Today is Mary's birthday and Kersti and Christine had decorated the store in her honour. Carla brought the most scrumptious chocolate cake, no butter but lots of wonderful chocolate. I love chocolate!

Well, I'd better go. We close at 3 on Fridays and I'm getting my hair cut right after work. Yeah!

Happy Knitting!

Susan

Well, it's been awhile since I posted. It's been a busy month here at Estelle. We got a huge Lana Grossa shipment in last Friday. Our new yarn Twelve arrived today. It's a pretty neat yarn, there are at least 12 different yarns in each ball and there are no knots. I don't know how they produce it but I'd love to see it being made.

We've added to our collection of knitting accoutrements. Sheep tape measures will be here in October. They are so cute. Here's a picture of them. Chris named them Molly and Winston after his dogs. He sometimes brings the dogs into the office. They're very sweet dogs and really well behaved.

It's pizza day today. We try to have pizza once a month. We've had a few extra people working in the warehouse this week so we don't have any left overs. We'll need them next week. We're expecting a big Jo Sharp shipment.

It's been unbearably hot here in Toronto the past week or so. The humidity finally broke last night. It's a comfortable 24C today. Good knitting weather. My garter stitch rut continues. I've started another strip knit sweater out of Maxi Tosca. It is such a nice yarn to knit with. I love watching the colours unfold and the strips are of different widths so it looks kind of like patchwork.

I knit a swatch earlier this week out of an organic cotton 3 ply sample that was sent to us. It is so soft and luxurious it didn't even feel like I was knitting with cotton, more like cashmere. Anyway, it will be a new Estelle yarn for Spring 08 in 14 soft dyed colours and 4 natural cotton colours. Now I need to get a couple of designs organized for it. I'll be searching the internet for inspiration.

That's it for now. It's Labour Day weekend!!! Three days to knit.

Happy knitting everyone.

Susan

Beautiful Muskoka

I was on the road for a few days earlier this week. I drove up on Sunday afternoon. I stayed at my aunt and uncle's cottage on Lake of Bays for two nights. I sure picked a good weekend to be by a lake. I took this picture of the full moon reflected on the water.

The next morning I took a shot of the same view. The water was like a mirror. That's the boathouse railing and dock in the foreground and my cousin's cottage at the end of the bay.

My first stop was The Craft Room in Rosseau. Betty and Sue are the owners and lovely people. The store was really busy while I was there. That tends to happen regularly when I go into a store. Next I went to the Parry Sound Sewing Centre and met with Janet & Howard. Again, very nice people. I had to go back through Rosseau and stopped in to The Craft Room. I took a picture of the store and the sign they'd put out front after I left the first time. They're making room for the new yarns they've ordered.

I got back to the cottage a little after 5, changed into my new bathing suit and jumped into the lake. The water was beautiful, around 75 degrees. My cousin's little girl asked me if she could splash me and I told her she could after I was all wet. She also wanted me to teach her how to knit. I bought her a 6mm circular and got the sample ball of Alpine out of my trunk and showed her what to do. She caught on remarkable well. I told her that after I went home her Grandma would help her. She's the one that taught me to knit!!!

On Tuesday morning I went to Sheepstrings in Huntsville. I had every intention of being there right at 10 o'clock. However my uncle noticed that my left front tire was quite slack. My cousin got out his tire gauge and sure enough, it was down to 11 lbs pressure instead of the normal 30 lbs. So he pumped it up, actually pumped up all of them and in the process noticed that I had a leak in the exhaust manifold. I have Onstar on my car so called them and had them do a remote diagnostic and apparently I also have a problem with the power train. Great. The car is in for servicing this morning. Anyway, I didn't get to Sheepstrings until almost 11. Again, as soon as I walked in the store got busy. I really like Sheepstrings. Karen is the owner and has really done a good job. She has excellent customer service skills and a really good selection of yarns.

I stopped in to the Muskoka Yarn Connection on the way home and introduced myself to the owner. I showed her the shade card for our new wool Andes. I finally got home a little after 5 with now trouble from the car thank goodness.

The warehouse is still really busy. To give you an idea of how much yarn is back there I took a few pictures. I felt badly for the guys working there this week. It is so hot back there.

We that's all from me for today.

Happy Knitting!

Susan

Busy Week

It's been a busy week here at Estelle so I haven't had a chance to post since Monday. We've had a couple of additional shipments arrive and the warehouse has been extremely busy. It tends to get very hot back there at this time of year. I worked back there all day Tuesday and felt pretty grubby by the time I got home. Never a dull moment!


I'm heading on the road next week. I'm going to Rosseau, Parry Sound and Huntsville. I think I'll make a stop in Bracebridge on the way home. I'm going up on Sunday afternoon. My aunt and uncle have a cottage on Lake of Bays near Dwight and they said I could stay with them for a couple of nights. It's going to be really hot early next week so I have to go to Scarborough Town Centre after work today and buy a new bathing suit. My favourite thing to do:) I lost weight a couple of years ago and my old ones are too big.

I was at knitting group last night. It is always fascinating to see what everyone is working on. Show and Tell is also amazing. I'm stuck in a garter stitch rut right now but that will pass. One of the group showed a coat she had designed in modular style out of four different colours of sock yarn. She'd increased the size of the diamonds gradually in the skirt and it draped beautifully. There were sweaters, sock, shawls and scarves of all descriptions. It's also fascinating watching other people knit, the various techniques and speeds. All in all a good night.

I was out in the garden this morning before breakfast and the Star Gazer lilies that I planted last year are in bloom at last. I'm not a very experienced gardener so last year when nothing happen I thought I'd planted them upside down. But sure enough this spring up they came. They are so beautiful. I gather they will get taller next year.

I'll let you know how the trip goes when I get back next week. It's always good to get out to different stores and see what's happening in their areas.

Have a good weekend and keep cool.

Susan

That's a lot of yarn!!!

We had a very exciting day on Friday. The Lang shipment arrived bright and early. It was so large it filled and entire container on the ocean freighter that brought it over. Here's a picture of the back of the truck before it was unloaded.

It really didn't take too long to get all the skids off the truck, maybe half an hour. Then the fun began unpacking. It was all unpacked by the end of the day. The warehouse is really packed right now as you can see.

Now the fun begins fill all the orders. Should be a hectic week around here. I've already picked out my bag of Maxi Tosca. It is all greys and black since I tend to wear mostly greys and black in the winter. I did a modular strip vest earlier this year and am very pleased with it so I think I'll take that and add sleeves to make a cardigan. Here's the link to our site to see the colours. I chose colour 70. http://www.estelledesigns.ca/images/Lang/Lang%20Maxi%20Tosca.htm

It's a beautiful sunny day here in Toronto. I've been getting information together on the Stitch n' Pitch that is being held here next month. All knitter's will get a Toronto Blue Jays knitting bag filled with goodies. We're going to give something, not sure what yet, maybe a scarf kit.

I've finally got the latest patterns ready to go. Chris will take them to the printer and then they'll have to be proofed. Dale of Norway did our photography this year. The pictures look really good.

I've just about finished a shawl out of Watercolours, just have to cast it off and block it. I'm really pleased with the colourway I decided on. Next I'm going to finish the Young Touch sweater I'm doing out of the Knit Stitch. I'd like to have that finished so I can at least wear it a few times before it's too cold.

Better go!

Happy knitting!

Susan

My First Post

Hi I'm Susan and I'm the resident knitter at Estelle Designs in Toronto. This is my very first post. Pretty exciting!

I've worked for Estelle for 4 years and think I have a knitter's dream job. I get to knit at my desk (sometimes)! I sell yarn to retail stores, do a bit of designing for the company, help pick out colours for new yarns, work in the office and help out with any knitting questions consumers or stores might have.

We've just received some samples from a mill in Peru. Chris has picked out a few that are potential candidates for the Estelle Collection. I've just knit a test swatch of a worsted weight organic cotton, yummy!

We launched Fall a few months ago and the shipments are starting to arrive! It's a really exciting time of year. We're expecting a huge Lang shipment on Friday. We're bringing in two extra people to help unpack it. Then I'll get to go shopping in the warehouse. I've got my eye on a bag of their new Maxi Tosca.

Well, I'd better get back to it. More later on.

Happy knitting!
Susan