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