susantheknitter@estelledesigns

Thanksgiving

2009-10-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

It's Thanksgiving weekend. I'm really looking forward to having three days off. I don't have much planned for the weekend but that's okay, more knitting time. I finally finished the alpaca hat for work. It might be a bit on the small side but I can always write a larger size. Chris is taking all the samples to the photographer this weekend. I'll have to get all the patterns out and go through them to make sure there aren't any errors. There's a bit of pressure being a pseudo technical editor but it has to be done. I made the suggestion a while back that after we have something designed for us, we have it test knit by someone else. It's what all designers do to make sure their patterns are understandable and error free. I have test knit for Fiona Ellis for both of her books. I the ladies summer top with the lace border in Inspired Cable Knits and the halter top and pleated sleeve cardigan in Inspired Fair Isle Knits. It helps to have someone that isn't really close to the pattern take a look at it.

I've been working on my Cascade 220 cardigan. I'll keep working on it this weekend. I've been wandering the warehouse looking at bags of yarn trying to decide what my next project will be. I should probably go into my fairly extensive stash but that's not going to happen.

My neighbour's father passed away yesterday at the age of 92. He's been very ill with Alzheimer's for the past several years so it is probably a blessing. Her son is in Egypt having the time of his life. He's been exploring the pyramids this week and next week they're going camping in the desert. The professor in charge of this has invited him and a few others to his home for dinner with some of his friends. I can't tell you who one of the friends is but he's a very famous actor. I can tell you once the TV show airs next year. Derek, being young, hadn't heard of him but when Christine told me it was OMG you're kidding!

Have wonderful Thanksgiving! and Happy Knitting.
Susan

Bronze Medal!

2009-10-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

My next door neighbour's oldest son is currently in Beirut participating in the Francophone Games. She just called me to say that he won the bronze medal in the 1500 meters. How fantastic is that??? He may also be running the 5K tomorrow. He comes home on Wednesday.

Her other son Derek (I mentioned him several weeks ago) is going to Egypt. He has to be in Cairo on Monday. He's in England at the moment so he'll be go straight there. He's participating in a reality show on the History network. It's a group of archaeologist and I believe the show is called Chasing Mummies. He doesn't come home until the end of February. What an amazing experience for him. There's never a dull moment around their house that's for sure.

We received another shipment from Peru this afternoon. Each one of those bales holds 90 kilos of yarn. Skippy in the warehouse is going to be a busy boy next week. We're expecting a couple of other shipments next week also.

It's pouring rain outside and I think it's supposed to rain for most of the weekend. Which is a drag because I can't get outside and walk. I think I've got my father convinced to buy a treadmill. He quite enjoys the treadmill when he's at physio. It would be good for him to keep active throughout the winter. My ankle is quite sore today. I wore a shoe with a slightly higher heel yesterday, maybe that's part of the problem. I think the rain isn't helping either.

I bought two pair of shoes after work last week, both fairly flat, black, one is suede, the other leather trimmed with patent. I have the latter on right now and they are very comfortable. I always say, you can't have too many pair of black shoes.

I finished both scarves and Chris is going to have them photographed. We'll have a free pattern on the website in the very near future.

Have a good weekend and Happy Knitting!

Susan

Gnocchi

2009-09-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

Gnocchi is a new yarn from Lana Grossa. It looks like a whole lot of Gnocchis strung together. The pompoms are like chenille. I started to make myself a scarf out of the black luxe last Friday night. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself. Then I started another one out of one of multi colours. The black one is 8 stitches, the multi is 6. Here's what they look like.

I'm putting fringe on the black one but think I'll leave the multi as is. I bought a new winter coat last week (to those who know me well, yes I am a coat slut. I love coats.) It is a deep amethyst colour with a black over collar so the colours in this will go very nicely with it.

I've been working on a cardigan for myself using Cascade 220 Heather colour 9336. It's an asymmetrical cardigan, fairly short, with a deep ribbing. I really like the pattern. I think I'll do another one out of our Organic Cloud Cotton.

I've almost finished the baby sweater for Dan's secretary. It's so cute. I made both hat sizes also. I finished the larger one and thought it was too large so I made the smaller one also. It looks more baby head sized. Anyway, I'll give her both. I'm sure the baby will grow into the larger one.

I'm only going for physio once a week now. My range of motion is good as is my gait. I still have some pain on the inside of the joint. I guess it's something I'll just have to live with. I'm wearing shoes today that have elastic across the instep. I can really feel pressure on the right one to the point that it is uncomfortable. Which is a total drag. Two of my favorite pair of shoes have elastic across the instep. Oh well, I'll just have to buy a new pair of shoes (and yes, I am a shoe slut also. My friends at Bell used to call me Imelda).

I still haven't been to check out the new McNally Robinson store here in Toronto. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. I did order a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking from them to be sent to my sister for her 50th birthday. I was very impressed with the service. I received a personal email from their customer service thanking me for my order.

I can't believe my little sister is turning 50 this weekend. 50 isn't so bad, it's kind of liberating. Her husband and daughter are planning a surprise party for her. Don't think she'll be impressed but you never know.

Well, I'd better go. Have a great weekend and Happy Knitting!

Susan

It Bloomed!!!

2009-09-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

The night blooming cereus bloomed on Saturday night. We took Christine, Steve and Derek up to the golf club for dinner and got home a little after 9:00. We went into their house and sure enough the two blooms were starting to open. This is what they looked like at 9:15. That's Derek standing behind them. It took just over an hour for them to come into full bloom. The outside is covered with thin pink tendrils. As they opened, you could actually see the tendrils move. Here they are partially open.

And here they are fully opened.The flower only blooms one night. Christine said she was up around 1:30 and it still looked the same but in the morning, this is what it looked like.

The fragrance it emits filled the entire house. It was pretty amazing to watch. I wonder when or if it will bloom again. I'm going to prune mine back on the weekend and maybe start a few cuttings.

The plant growing in our courtyard is a grain of some sort. It's getting bigger and frothier.

I decided to make a baby outfit our of our Cloud Cotton last weekend. I'm almost finished the second sleeve. I'm making the wrap sweater that Lynn Cullen designed for us last year. Last weekend was the fourth anniversary of my brother's death. I don't know why but I just felt like making something for a new life coming into the world. I'm going to give this to Dan's receptionist Lindsay. She's have a little boy in January.

Speaking of Dan, I only saw him once this week. I'm back again on Monday. He says structurally I'm fine, it's the sensitivity on the bone at the joint that he worries about. I have to keep doing my exercises and friction it with my fingers. That hurts so I probably don't use enough pressure. I'll keep walking on the weekend.

I'm debating about going to the KW Knitter's Fair tomorrow. I'll give my friend Susan a call tonight and see if she wants to go.

I'm off to get my hair cut after work. I had an appointment for next Friday but I can't wait that long. My hair is changing as I get older. Now when it gets a little longer, it starts to curl. For someone who has had poker straight hair all her life it's really hard to get used to. Oh well.

Have a good weekend and Happy Knitting!

Susan

It's not corn!

2009-09-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

Well, the mystery plant growing in our courtyard is definitely not corn. I don't know if you can tell from the photo but it looks more like a grain of some sort. We'll see how it progresses over the weekend and I'll post another picture next week. The night blooming cereus next door still hasn't bloomed. We're thinking it will be one night over the weekend.

The warehouse has been hopping this week. We had 5 skids come from Lana Grossa and 3 skids from King Cole. We've also had several huge shipments go out. It's pretty crowded back there. This is a small portion of some of the Lana Grossa yarns on the back table in the warehouse. It was twice a high a few days ago.
When I first started working here I found the amount of yarn we have overwhelming. Now I hardly notice. But I do get excited when the new yarns start to arrive.

We had pizza lunch yesterday for the first time since March. Normally we have it once a month when we meet our targets. I'm pretty sure we've been meeting our targets so I don't know what's up with that.

It's Labour Day weekend. I don't have too much planned. We're going out for dinner tomorrow night and I think a friend and I might check out the Don Mills Centre. The weather is supposed to be fantastic so I'll be walking everyday. I'm going to try going a longer distance, maybe over to Birchmount and back. I'm back to walking my 3 km in my pre ankle break time, mostly without any discomfort. I sense my time with Dan is coming to an end.

I'm not sure what I'm going to knit this weekend. I might start a baby sweater out of our Cloud Cotton but I'm not sure. Not like I don't have enough already started.

Have a great weekend and Happy Knitting!
Susan

Corn in the Courtyard?

2009-08-31T12:18:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of one of the planters in our courtyard at the front of the house. Notice the strange looking plant growing up to it's right. We think it might be corn. We have a bird feeder directly behind where I'm standing and think that the seeds might have come from it. There are actually two stalks. I tried to take a closer shot so maybe you can see them.

Still with plants, I have a night blooming cereus in the dining room. It came from a cutting off a cutting off a cutting from a plant that was my grandmother's. My aunt still has the original plant. My sister has a plant also. As it's name implies, it blooms only at night. The last time the original plant bloomed was when I was about a year old. Several years ago I gave a cutting to my next door neighbours. Christine called me all excited because they have two blooms growing on theirs. I spoke to my aunt and she said the last time it bloomed, the blooms were about 10" before they opened. They are about 6" right now. It only blooms for one night and the fragrance once the bloom opens is apparently unbelievable and fills the entire house. Christine thinks it might bloom later this week. I'll keep you posted and will take some pictures.

My sister called on Saturday afternoon to tell me the sweater arrived safe and sound and she loves it. Apparently it fits my niece also. I hope they'll share.

I walked both days over the weekend. Sunday morning I did my 3km in the same time I did before I broke my ankle. It is pretty much pain free most of the time except when Dan frictions near the bone bruise and the ligaments. I'm going for physio after work tonight so we'll see what he says. I'm doing better on the wobble board but still don't like it very much.

I've started a sweater for myself out of Cascade 220 Heather. It's a fairly short, asymmetrical cardigan. I'm up to the armhole shaping on the left front. I always start with one of the fronts when I'm doing a cardigan so that if there are any tension issues, I haven't put too much effort into it. I've got to rip out the alpaca had I'm working on. I tried it on our Styrofoam head and it's too tight. Back to the drawing board.

I'd better go. Have a good week.

Happy Knitting!

Susan

It's Finished!

2009-08-21T11:52:00.001-07:00

I finished my sister's sweater last week. I'm very pleased with the results. I went up to Mary's Yarns in Unionville to get the buttons. I wanted really fabulous buttons as it is such a simple sweater and I found the perfect ones.

It's been a busy week around here. We've had a couple of major shipments arrive so we've got some extra help in the warehouse. I'm invoicing like crazy. It's sometimes hard for our shipper to keep up.

I've started a new sock (I know I've got at least three others on the go, it's a sickness). It's Lang's Jawoll Aktion Denim. I love the taupe /blue combination. I don't have plans this weekend so I'll work away on it. I'm working on an alpaca hat for work to match a scarf and wrist warmer. It's almost finished.

I went to see Julie and Julia last Saturday. I loved it. Now I want a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I think I'll ask for it for Christmas as it's a little expensive. I might give my sister a copy for her 50th birthday in September. Meryl Streep was fantastic as Julia Child. They showed that Saturday Night Live clip of Dan Ackroyd imitating Julia Child. It was too funny.

We had a terrible storm here last night. North of the city in Vaughn a tornado touched down. Many houses were damaged and 20 will have to be demolished. It was kind of scary. I was at physio (it's on the lower level) and I was surprised at how dark it was when I got out of the elevator. I called back up there after I got home to warn them. They both have long distances to travel and thought they should be forewarned. I think we're supposed to have storms both days on the weekend. Oh well.

Well, I'd better go. Have a great weekend and Happy Knitting!

Susan

My Lily

2009-08-07T11:37:00.001-07:00

This is one of the Stargazer Lilies in the back garden. Three out of the four blooms are out. I think it is absolutely beautiful. I have another one a little to the left of this one that has seven blooms on it. I checked it this morning before I left for work and the first bloom had come out on it. I think it is supposed to rain on Sunday so I hope they don't get battered to badly. This is a picture of it a couple of days ago. Look at the height of the snap dragon in the background. We've always had great success with snap dragons but this one is unbelievable.

I went to Stratford with my friends Joan and Cynthea yesterday. We had a lovely lunch at Pazzo and then saw The Importance of Being Earnest. It was absolutely wonderful. Brian Bedford was fantastic as Lady Bracknell. I drove. It wasn't too bad until we got to about Mississauga and the 401 ground to a halt. I don't understand how an accident in the right lane of the collectors past Bayview can cause all lanes in both the collectors and express to clog up for that distance. Anyway, I didn't get home until almost 8 o'clock.

My next door neighbour's son Derek is an archaeologist. He has applied for a job in Egypt. It is a six month stint. They are filming a series for the History channel and he had to do a video audition and post it on youtube. He started it with an Indiana Jones type move involving our garage door. He was sitting in the garage sketching an artifact (pretend you're in a cave in Egypt) and all of a sudden the garage door starts to close. He jumps up and rolls out under the door just as it closes and loses his hat. It was really well done. Then he took them to Honduras (the woods north of our house) to show them the Mayan dig he'd been on when he was at University of South Florida and then he took them to Turkey (the Scarborough Bluffs) where he'd been on dig when he was at the University of Bristol doing his masters. Anyway, the casting agents thought it was fantastic. Last night he had a phone call from Hollywood. The director thought it was fantastic also and he has a phone interview with the director on Monday. Pretty exciting!

I'm working on another hat for work out of Super Alpaca. It's going to be a simple 2 x 2 rib to match a scarf and wrist warmer set I did a few years ago. I started a sock for myself when I was at physio today.

I'm off to have my hair cut and a mani/pedi. Looking forward to it.

Have a good weekend and Happy Knitting!

Susan

The Long Weekend

2009-07-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

Monday is Civic Holiday here in Ontario so we the day off. I don't have anything planned but I'm looking forward to having the time off. It's been really tough getting out of bed the last few mornings. I've hit the snooze button a few times too many. Yesterday and today have been absolutely beautiful. Summer has finally arrive (I hope). The weather certainly has been strange this summer. I was talking to one of our stores in Victoria yesterday. They've been having a terrible heat wave. I think our weather has been reversed.

I finished the knitting on my sister's sweater. It did take just the two skeins to finish it and I have about 50g left over. I pinned it together at lunch yesterday and took it with me to physio last night. I think Dan is quite fascinated by the process so I showed him how to put the pieces together. I told him that finishing is very telling, it can make the difference between home made and hand made. I'll put it together this weekend. It needs two large buttons and I haven't decided if I'll buy some or try and make knitted buttons. Decisions, decisions.

I started another Alpaca hat yesterday. It is the same as the red one I posted awhile back. I went to type up the pattern and couldn't find my notes. I normally write everything in my knitting journal but there was nothing on this project which is odd. So I thought I'd better re-knit it. I am making meticulous notes this time. We were going to have it re-knit in a different colour anyway so it works out well.

Physio is going well. I'm back on the big wobble board and this week Dan has taken my hands off the supports so that I can hold onto him and wobble. It's a bit terrifying but I did it. Last night he had me at a much faster pace on the treadmill. He says my gait is much better and he wants me to go even faster in the future. He wanted to try an experiment so had me do a me hold his hands and do a little jump to see what happened when I landed. Well it hurt so I guess I'll be going for a while yet. He's such a sweetie-pie and he's an excellent physiotherapist to boot. I'm going to miss him when I don't have to go anymore.

We got another big Lang shipment in this week. Tons more sock yarn. The September Jawoll Aktion programmes arrived. I've been eyeing colour 0277 since we first got the samples back in April so I took a ball for myself. Lang is excellent in the support they provide to our reps. For each colour of sock yarn they provide a knit swatch so that store owners can actually see what the yarn will look like when knit. It's so hard to tell with some yarns what sort of pattern you'll end up with. Actually, Lang provide knit swatches of all their new yarns. As I said, an excellent company to work with.

It's time to go. I've got errands to run after work and then I'll go for a walk.

Have a good weekend and happy knitting!

Susan

Summer???

2009-07-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

Is summer ever going to arrive? It's been so dismal this year. Today I just decided to wear a nice summery dress and pretend that it is warm outside.

On Monday I drove to Coldwater to see The Purple Sock. She has a very nice store. She also sells loose teas and hand crafted soap.

This is Matilda. Here husband made her for the store. Her arms are made of hinges with holes at the end so Lynn put some knitting in her hands. They move around so it really looks like she's knitting.

I bought some soap while I was there. I always try to help out the local economy.

I've started the back of my sister's sweater. I was working on it at physio last night. My ankle was really bothering me last weekend so I've been taking it easy. I walked on Wednesday and had the brace really tightly on my ankle. It felt pretty good but every so often it really grabs me.

We got four skids in on Tuesday from Lang. It took most of the day to unpack and put it away. Most of the big fall booking orders are being pulled and shipped now so it is getting busier.

Have a good weekend.
Happy knitting!

Susan

Pom

2009-07-17T11:12:00.001-07:00

We have a new yarn called Pom. It is made of giant pom poms connected with a binder. You knit into the binder between the pom poms and the pom poms alternate between the back and front.
I have just wound it into a ball and am going to attempt a scarf. When I tested it I used a 20mm needle but it was too loose. The last swatch I did was on a 10mm and that looked much better. The yarn is on the ocean so we want to have something ready to be test knit as soon as it comes in.

I've called my friend Susan to see if she'd test knit a scarf, headband and gauntlet set for us. I originally designed it using our Pearl yarn (sadly discontinued) but it is the same tension as our Super Alpaca so I think it will translate well. It is a quick knit and doesn't take a whole lot of yarn.

I've been working on my sister's sweater. I knit both fronts, a sleeve and part of the second sleeve out of one ball of Ecological Wool. I'm pretty sure I'll get the whole thing out of two balls. Here's one of the sleeves.

I haven't decided if I'll knit one for myself out of the other two or if I'll bring them back and try something different. I've got some charcoal gray Super Alpaca at home. It's the same tension so maybe I'll use that. I wear a lot of gray and black in the winter so that would work well.

I had physio again last night. I took my father with me. He'd been going to Dan for his back a little while ago. This week he tried to do too much and he's pulled a muscle. He thinks he's 60 not 87. He was back up there again this morning. He's got different exercises to do and he's not supposed to lift anything heavy. Dan had me on the big wobble board. I was okay while I was holding onto the supports but then he took my hands off it and held onto them and had me rock side to side and back to front hold them. Not so great. Side to side was better than back to front. I have to work on my balance.

I don't have too much planned for this weekend. Last weekend I went to see The Proposal, Sandra Bullock's new one. I really enjoyed it. She and Ryan Reynolds were great together. I think I'll do a purge through my father's drawers and get rid of some of his older things. He's all for it which helps. He'll be glued to the British Open this weekend. Hopefully the weather will be good so that I can walk both days.

Well, I'd better go and start that scarf. Have a good weekend.

Happy Knitting!

Susan

What I Did On My Vacation

2009-07-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely two weeks off. My sister and niece came up from PEI for a few days. We went to Stratford one day and saw Macbeth. It was wonderful, set in mid 20th century Africa. The reason they did that is that in Shakespeare's day the English thought the Scottish were barbaric. Some of the things that have happened in Africa in the past few decades have also seemed barbaric. It shows how relevant the play still is when you look at it from that perspective.

We made chili sauce and red currant jelly one day. We cleaned out the garage for my father. We went shopping at Markville Mall. My niece got a really cute prom dress at H & M. I bought a cute pair of sandals. They went home on July 1 and I just puttered for the last few days. It was really nice having the time off. I felt quite rested when I got back. Although I must admit that I really didn't want to come back, something I've never felt before.

I've been back at work for a week. It's been fairly quiet in the office although not in the warehouse. We got a huge shipment in on Tuesday, a full ocean container. We've had these in the past but this was the biggest one so far. Here's what the container looked like at the receiving door.

After Canada Customs inspects the contents they seal the container with a big lock. The driver of the truck has to cut this off with huge pliers to open the doors. Here he is.

When the doors were opened this is what greeted us. Each of the bales weighs 98 kilos. There were 42 bales and about 28 boxes. That's Lalenie, our shipper, pulling one of the boxes out.

We had four extra people in for the rest of the week unpacking all the yarn and putting it on the shelves. Now they're pulling orders to be shipped.

My sister wanted a brown cardigan so I took home a bag of Cascade's Ecological Wool in colour 8025, a nice, dark heathery brown. I had been at Linda's Craftique a couple of weeks ago and was looking through her patterns while she was helping a customer. I ended up buying three pattern. This is the one I'm doing for my sister .

I've done both fronts and half a sleeve and still haven't finished the first ball. I have a feeling I'll be able to do two sweaters out of one bag. It's like the ball that never ends. I'll have to find some really great buttons to finish it off. I was knitting on it while I was at physio last night. My ankle is feeling pretty good most of the time but every so often it really hurts. Dan got me a brace so when I'm doing my daily walk, I wear it. It really helps keep the ankle stable. Hopefully it will be a nice weekend so that I can continue walking.

I took a ball of our new Super Alpaca Lace home before I went on vacation. I've been playing around with it, testing out a few different stitches. I'll have more to report on that later.

I had a call from our sales rep in Halifax, Judy, yesterday. She was telling me about this local band that has become an overnight sensation on Youtube. They're called Sons of Maxwell. The story goes that they were going to Nebraska to play a gig. They changed planes in Chicago and the singer saw his guitar being thrown off the plane, literally. They broke it and would do nothing to compensate him. So, in retaliation he wrote a song, recorded a video and loaded it on Youtube. He's become an instant sensation, even featured on CNN. The video has had over 1.4 million hits so far. Here's the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo The clip is called United Breaks Guitars. Quite a catchy tune actually.

Well, I'd better go. Have a great weekend.
Happy Knitting!
Susan

Vacation!!!

2009-06-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

I'm on holidays for the next two weeks!!! I haven't had two weeks off in a row since I went to Italy in 1995. I'm really looking forward to having the time off. I'm not going anywhere. My sister and niece are coming from PEI on June 25 and going back on July 1. We're going to try to get tickets to Stratford. I had suggested West Side Story but my niece wants to see Shakespeare. I'll see if I can get tickets to Macbeth. Colm Feore is the lead and he's such a fabulous actor. It would be amazing to see him as Macbeth. I saw him a couple of years ago in Coriolanus and he was amazing. I think we're going to attempt making chili sauce and maybe red currant jelly while they're here also. I've made both many times but always with my great aunt Elizabeth. She would tell me what to do and then go have a nap. She'd get up and tell me what to do and when to add this or that. Unfortunately she died last November at the age of 102. I'm hoping I'll remember when to add the sugar, etc.

I have been working off and on on a hat and scarf set out of Arequipa. The hat is finished but I'm going to have to restart the scarf. It's just not working the way I want it to. I chose a heart motif out the third Barbara Walker book. I've written out the instructions from the chart. I'll put both on the website when the pattern is finished. I want the hearts to be facing one way at the beginning and the other way at the end. I would normally have someone else knit this but I need to do it myself. Guess this will be my holiday project.

I've started another chemo cap this time using Cascade Fixation. I've been wanting to work with this yarn for awhile. It's 98.3% Cotton and 1.7% Elastic and it is really stretchy. I thought it would make a good chemo cap because the cotton would breathe and the elastic would keep it from stretching out. I'll take a picture of it when it is done.

Speaking of pictures I was in Lakefield and Lindsay on Wednesday. I took a couple of pictures of Naz's dog Angel at Kawartha Yarns and a movie of her technique for using multi coloured and solid yarns with a cro-hook. It's very effective. Unfortunately, I can't get them downloaded to my computer. I don't understand it. I'll try it on my computer at home.

I was at physio again last night. The adorable Dan had me on the wobble board again. It wasn't too bad. I've managed to loosen the death grip I usually have on the supports and I'm not staring at my feet all the time. At least he didn't have me haning on to him while I'm wobbling. He did that once or twice before the accident. I'm surprised he didn't have bruises on his arms I was holding on so tightly. I have a nasty feeling that he'll have me on the big wobble board in the near future. Now that terrifies me. Dan does the Triathlon. He's trying to lose some weight before the next Ironman in July. He certainly doesn't need to but he says it helps when competing.

Our neighbour's son Matthew ran the mile at the Festival of Excellence a week or so ago. He unfortunately didn't have a great race. He started too fast and didn't have the energy to kick at the end. He still ran a 4 minute mile which isn't too shabby at all.

I'd best start tidying up my desk before I leave. I will be in the office for a bit on Tuesday to pick up the samples. I'm going to see Linda's Craftique in Port Credit Tuesday morning.

Have a great couple of weeks. I'll post again when I'm back.

Happy Knitting!
Susan

Friday

2009-06-12T11:46:00.000-07:00

It's Friday again. Thank goodness. It's been a long week. We're short staffed at the moment so I'm doing double duty. Chris has been bugging me to get out on the road. I haven't been able to up until now as I'm not supposed to carry anything too heavy that might put me off balance. I ran it past Dan, my physiotherapist (such a sweetie pie), the other night and he said I should be okay now. So I went to see the Wool Mill yesterday. I was able to park directly in front of the store which was great. I spent a couple of hours with Wendy. Carolyn who works for her came in toward the end and got us all a cup of tea. I got back to the office a little after 2. I'm going to see the Knitting Basket in Bridlewood Mall on Monday morning and to Lakefield and Lindsay next Wednesday. That will be an all day outing. I'll be interested in seeing how the ankle holds up to being in one position for a couple of hours straight. I've got a bundle buggy that I can use to transport the sample cases if I can't get parked close to the store. I ran that idea past Dan and he thought that it was good.

I've been updating our website. I've added most of the new Lang qualities, including all the sock yarns. You can see them here http://www.estelledesigns.ca/images/Lang/LangJawollAktion.htm

Next I'm going to tackle Cascade and Estelle.

While I was laid up with my ankle I knit this hat and scarf set out of our Superfine Alpaca

It's really simple and will be a free pad pattern in the near future. Our new Ecological Super Alpaca arrived shortly before inventory. I think a bag of the natural will be coming home with me soon. I feel a nice cosy cardigan coming out of it. We've got a new lace weight super alpaca in the collection. It is beautiful. When it comes in I thinks some of it will be going home with me also.

I have to take my car in for service tomorrow morning. There is something wrong with my tires. They seem to have a really slow leak. I have to have some other work done also. Hopefully it won't cost me an arm and a leg but I want to have it done before I drive to Lakefield on Wednesday. Other than that, I don't have much else on for the weekend. Maybe I'll get the chemo cap I'm working on finished.

Well, it's time to go. Have a great weekend!

Happy knitting!

Susan

I'm Back!

2009-05-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

It's been way too long since my last post. This year has been something of a challenge for me. I got my cast off at the end of February. I started physiotherapy the following week. I'm going to the physiotherapist that my neighbour went to last year for a torn rotator cuff. He's very good. I'm there for a good two hours each visit. The ankle was starting to feel really good and Dan had given me permission to wear a small heel. Then on May 2 I was rear-ended. There was over $3500.00 damage to my car and my ankle was injured again and have a mild case of whiplash. That has put me back about four weeks in my recovery. Bummer. It is feeling much better. I would say it is almost to where it was before the accident. My insurance is now covering the cost of physio which is good. Dealing with the insurance people has been interesting. They sent an occupational therapist out to see if I needed any assistive devices. Then they sent a fellow out to take a statement from me that I had to sign.

On a more positive note, I won a $500.00 gift certificate at the salon where I get my hair cut. They also sell fabulous clothing so I have $300.00 on clothes and $200.00 on hair and services. It's the best thing that has happened to me all year.

A friend of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a mastectomy in March so I knit her a knitted knocker out of South Pacific. It is such lovely soft cotton it should feel nice against her skin. She's lost her hair so I'm going to knit her a chemo cap out of Smooth.

I won't be able to start that until after next week. We start inventory on Monday (yippee!). Chris is having four teams this year. Normally we have three but we have a lot more product than we did last year so hopefully this will speed things up.

I'm currently working on a pair of socks for my father out of Arequipa. He loves hand knit socks and he had to do so much more when I was laid up with the ankle that I thought I'd make him a new pair.

We had our Open House a couple of weeks ago. Lang has another strong offering for Autumn. We've added quite a few new qualities from Cascade also. Once inventory is over, I'll put the shade cards on the website. I've put the new Lang Jawoll Aktion on it already. I really like the Denim program that will be out in September. I love the colours.

I must be off, it's closing time. I'll try to post more frequently from now on.

Happy Knitting!
Susan

Happy New Year (I think, sort of...)

2009-01-23T10:19:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and 2009 is starting out well. Unfortunately, I have a nasty feeling that 2009 is not going to be one of my better years. I caught that horrible virus thing that is going around right before New Year's and was out of commission for almost two weeks. I was back to work for a week and then fell on January 13 and fractured my right ankle. This is a new experience for me. No one in our family has every broken anything (touch wood) so having a cast on is really different. I certainly have a much greater appreciation for disabled people. Nothing is simple anymore.

The people here at work have been great. Chris has been helping me up and down the steps outside. Jennifer, Lalenie, Annie Caroline have been great about getting me water or tea and heating up my lunch, bringing me documents from the printer, etc. I feel pretty useless however. I can sit at my desk (with my leg up of course) and can get most of the everyday work done though.

Because I can't drive I've asked my neighbour's son to drive me to and from work. He's been great and helps me in and out of the house. I'm getting better with my walker getting out of the house. The step from our front porch to the courtyard is quite steep so he helps me with that and he also helps getting me into the house. I find it much harder to hop up the steps than down. My father, bless his heart, has been wonderful but I know this has been hard on him. He's not used to so many trips up and down the stairs. I have to do the stairs on my bum. I can't use my walker on them and don't have the upper body strength to use crutches.

I haven't done much knitting over the last week. I was flat on my back with my leg elevated most of the time for the first 72 hours. I did knit myself a toe cosy out of our Superfine Alpaca. I had to, my toes were freezing!

I'm hoping to get some knitting done this weekend. I have a scarf out of Arequipa to work on. I've got both the chart and written instructions done for the first part but am going to have to reverse them for the end of it. The centre section is mostly plain knitting so it shouldn't take me too long to get that done.

Well, that's my tale of woe. Trying to be positive, the year can only get better can't it? I must go. Matthew will be here to pick me up soon.

Happy Knitting!
Susan

Seasons Greetings

2008-12-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I blogged. It normally slows down in the office in the month of December but it hasn't this year until the last couple of days. We were shipping out last minute orders at 4 o'clock yesterday which is really unusual. Today is our last day for the year. We're leaving at noon to have our Christmas lunch. We're going to the same restaurant that we went to last year, Remezzo. You can see the menu here http://www.remezzo.ca/home.html The food is good, it's close to the office and there is parking. The restaurant just called to confirm that we are still coming. We're having a terrible snow storm today, expecting 15 cm. We won't be back in the office until January 5. I'm looking forward to the break.

I went to the Vinyl Cafe Christmas Concert last Sunday with my friend Susan. It was wonderful as usual. This year it was at Massey Hall. It has always been at Convocation Hall in the past. We took the subway down and wandered through the Eatons Centre before dinner. The Swarovski Crystal Tree was on display. It was really beautiful.

I'm working on a hat and scarf out of Arequipa for work. They have a heart motif that I found in one of Barbara Walker's books. I've been using the chart but have written it out for knitters that aren't familiar with charts. I have the hat knit, it needs to be finished. I've started the scarf and am randomly placing the motif on the scarf. I'm alternating between using the chart and the written instructions to make sure they are accurate. We'll publish the pattern for Spring 09.

I'm making myself a shrug out of our Superfine Alpaca. It is really beautiful to knit with. I'm using the dark charcoal gray colour. I'll have some left over so I think I'll make a neckwarmer and a pair of fingerless gloves. It tends to be freezing in the office during the winter so I wear fingerless gloves quite a lot. Every time the warehouse door opens a blast of freezing air comes in. I sit closest to the door so I get the brunt of it. Thank goodness I have lots of warm sweaters!

It's almost time to go. I hope everyone that reads this has a wonderful and safe holiday season!

Happy Knitting and Happy New Year!

Susan

Lunch in Oakville

2008-09-30T06:03:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely lunch in Oakville on Saturday with my friends Bob, Lyn and Mary. We all worked together at Bell in Product Management. Bob is the only one left at Bell. I gather it is not a happy place to be right now. Mary and Lyn both live in Oakville so Bob and I made the drive from London and Scarborough respectively. We had lunch at the Olivepress and it was excellent. You can see the menu on their website http://www.olivepress.ca/ I had the Honeymoon Spaghetti and it was delicious. It has been two years since we got together so it was wonderful to get caught up. I had the waiter take our picture.

From left to right are Lyn, me, Bob and Mary.

My father has been in PEI visiting my sister for a few days. It was her birthday on Saturday. He came home on Sunday evening. He was a little concerned that he wouldn't make it home as the tail end of a hurricane was supposed to hit the island but it didn't, fortunately.

I'm working on a pair of over the knee socks right now. I'm almost finished the calf shaping. Once that is done, it will be a simple matter of finishing the foot like a regular sock. I'm doing it out of one of the newer colours of Arequipa paint. It is colour 210 on the shade card. http://www.estelledesigns.ca/images/Estelle/EstelleArequipa.htm It is a really lovely colourway. I'm very pleased with the way it is working up.

We're expecting another big shipment from Peru any minute now. Unfortunately, these shipments have to come through New York and always get tied up in security there. Ever since September 11, security has been extremely tight there. Understandable really.

It's raining today. I might have known it would because I got my car washed on Sunday. Oh well what can you do?

Have a good week and happy knitting!

Susan

Lots More Yarn!

2008-09-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy few weeks here at Estelle. Last week we received a container of yarn from Peru. I think it was the biggest shipment we've ever received. The container was parked at our receiving door to be unpacked. Here's what it looked like from the outside.This is what it looked like from inside the warehouse.
Needless to say it took some time to unload and unpack. It's all done now and the orders are going out the door to the stores.

Last week Lisa, the new owner of the Naked Sheep, was in to pick up some Cascade. She's still working full time and the Sarah and Emily working during the day. Lisa has made lots of changes to the Sheep both physically and to the inventory. She's added lots of sock yarn. I'll have to go down and have a look at the store. She lives not too far from here so it's convenient for her to stop in on her way to the store and pick things up.

Tomorrow is the Kitchener Waterloo Knitters Fair. We've had several stores in to stock up for their booths. I had contemplated going but decided not to for several reasons. First, my great-aunt Elizabeth is turning 102 tomorrow. There was a message from her son waiting when I got home last night telling me that he'd convinced her to go out for dinner tomorrow night and my father and I like to join them. So that would mean that I'd have to rush back from KW and I didn't want to do that. Second, it's going to rain tomorrow and I'm not fond of driving in the rain. And third, gas went up 13 cents overnight to $1.37 a litre. Ouch!

So, I'll stay home and start a new work project instead. It's going to be a pair of over-the-knee socks. I'll just start them and when I have the shaping worked out I'll have Mrs. King finish them. I'm going to see Spamalot on Sunday afternoon with my friend Susan. I've seen it before but it was so much fun that I can't wait to see it again. So all in all it should be a good weekend.

Well, I'd better go. It's 3:00 and the rush for the door is starting. I hadn't seen anything like it when I first started working here since I'd been in a unionized environment.

Have a good weekend.
Happy Knitting!
Susan

Photo Shoot

2008-07-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

We did our photo shoot last night. We transform the office into a temporary studio. We've used the same photographer for the last several years. He's the retired fashion photographer from the Globe and Mail. He's also very French and very nice. I sort of act as stylist for these things, making sure that garments that have special features get shot at angles that will emphasize them. We had a lovely young lady as our model. This was her first time in front of the camera. She was really nervous at first but she soon relaxed. Alain was very good at making her smile. I took a shot of Alain taking a shot of Keating. Today Chris chose the shots that we will use for each pattern. We usually try to show a couple of different angles on each pattern. I'm in the process of making sure that the patterns are correct and formatted properly. Then we'll get them off to the printer. Once we get them back and proof them the printer puts them together into tear off pads. We then make sets of each pattern and send them out to all the stores. People always like to get something free.

We're also putting together binders for all the stores. These will include all the shade cards for the Cascade yarns we distribute along with most of the Estelle shade cards. We're also send a King Cole shade book.

I'm testing a new sample that arrived. It is 60% merino,20% alpaca, 10% silk and 10% nylon. It feels pretty nice but I'll haven't got far enough on it yet. It looks like a sport weight. I'll report back on my next post.

I was just talking to Karen at Sheepstrings. She'd just read my last post about the Eagles concert. She'd been at the Tuesday show and loved it as much as I did. We both agreed that we'd have loved to go to the Thursday one. She's been trying to find their new CD and can't. I was planning to go to Walmart to get it for myself so I told her I'd get her one also.

The warehouse is a hive of activity right now. We've got Annie and a young guy pulling orders. Chris tries to arrange it so that shipments come in on a staggered basis but as usual Murphy's law steps in and they all come at once. Our knitting needles came in. That was two full skids on its own.

Well I'd best get back to my patterns.

Happy knitting!

Susan

The Eagles

2008-07-25T06:15:00.000-07:00

I went to The Eagles concert on Monday night. It was fantastic. My friend Joan called me last week to see if I wanted to go. She'd been given two tickets. Of course I wanted to go! They played some tunes from their new record but they played a lot of their past hits. They did some of their solo tunes also. Joe Walsh was amazing. Well, they all were. They sound just as great today as they did 30 years ago. They played for over 3 hours. The concert didn't end until 11:45 and I didn't get home until 12:45.

I've been taking Mondays off for the past few weeks. It's been nice have long weekends. I've been working on a baby sweater out of the new pale pink Arequipa It's almost finished. Of course in the meantime I've started a scribble lace shawl out of black Arequipa and the new bright colour of Woolly Bully. We had this done a few years ago out of Watercolours and Woolly Bully but we've discontinued Watercolours so thought it would work with Arequipa. It's looking good. I'll have to finish it this weekend because we're doing our photo shoot on Tuesday after work. The photographer we use is the retired fashion photographer from the Globe and Mail.

I went to see Pick Up Sticks in Bradford on Wednesday. They have a new puppy, a 14 week old Golden Retriever named Rocky. Talk about a cute puppy and so good. He didn't bark once the whole time I was there. Here's his picture.

I'm leaving early today to go to a funeral. My first singing teacher passed away this week. They wanted former choir members to participate so I'll me singing in a choir for the first time in many years. After that I'm off to see a new children's store in Unionville. (We have another side to the business in the gift industry which I'm involved in also.) Then I'm getting my hair cut.

Happy Knitting!

Susan

WWKIP Day part 2

2008-06-16T10:14:00.000-07:00

WWKIP day at Scarborough Town Centre was a great success. It was lots of fun. We had a table that we set up a display on. We took two mannequins and two of our Cloud Cotton sample sweaters. We had lots of sample balls of various yarns. We took some of our free pad patterns so that people could help themselves. And we took lots of Jungle/Shimmer scarf kits. I ended up giving a kit to everyone there. I'd say there were between 30 and 40 knitters there. Some of them stayed the whole day. Here's a picture of the group. I asked Jody, the organizer, to take a picture of the DKC members. We are, left to right, Flo (an amazing bead knitter), yours truly, Wendy (DKC Treasurer) Joan (Frolic chair) and Wanietta (Canada's fastest knitter and 3rd fastest knitter in the world).

A couple of people came up to me and said " I know you. You used to work at Shelly's" As soon as they said that I recognized them also. It was nice to catch up.

In the afternoon a girl came with her spinning wheel. You can see her sitting behind Flo and Wendy. That really attracted a lot of attention. People walking past in the mall would stop and watch for a long time. It really was fascinating.

Yesterday we had our final ballet performance of the season. It was a mixed programme and it was excellent. I hadn't seen The Second Detail before and it was great. Jennifer Fournier (who is retiring at the end of the season) did a solos piece - Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan. The third was Etudes which was more classical and the highlight was The Fiddle and the Drum. It was performed by the Alberta Ballet and was amazing. It is performed to Joni Mitchell's music. The creative director worked with her to create the ballet. She's got such a great voice. Walking from the restaurant to the ballet we had to walk past CityTV. Queen St was blocked off while they set up for the Much Music Video awards last night. It was pretty cool to watch the rehearsals.
Well I'd best go. I'm off to show the Wool Mill Autumn.

Happy Knitting!
Susan

WWKIP Day

2008-06-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

WWKIP stands for World Wide Knit in Public. June 14 is WWKIP Day all around the world. Creative Yarns, which is a new store in the area, have worked with their city councillor to have space inside the Scarborough Town Centre to set up an area where people can come and knit in public. They asked us to sponsor part of it so we are. We're going to have a table there where we can have some of our yarns for people to try. I've got a stack of straight needles that I never use so we can take them. It should be fun! Wendy from the Wool Mill was just here so I showed her the flyer. She took it to put in her window. She thought she'd drop in to Creative Yarns on her way back to say hello. She was in picking up a couple of bags of Cascade 220 to make two sweaters for an upcoming movie. She does this all the time. She made a sweater for John Travolta in Hairspray.

I have finally finished Annie's socks. As you can see they are fraternal socks not identical ones. They are still a bit damp from blocking them last night. I don't know why but I always block my socks. I think they look better.

My father has been broadly hinting that he needs new socks and they he's had to go out and buy socks so I guess I'll start a pair for him next. He wants brown and plain. We have the new Jawoll Silk in stock now so maybe I'll grab a ball of that for him. It is self striping but very subtle.

We finished inventory this afternoon. It took longer than usual as we have about 25% more product than last year. Annie was back and I was paired with her. As nasty as inventory can be it is a great opportunity to get the warehouse in really good shape.

Chris had symphony tickets for tomorrow night that he wasn't able to use so he gave them to me. It's a casual concert that is quite short, no intermissions so I'd imagine that we'll be home before 10. I haven't been to the symphony for a long time.

The weather has finally turned hot. It is 32C here today but it feels like 41C. It's not supposed to be too bad for the weekend. I've having a pedicure in the morning now that sandal season has finally arrived.

That's it for now. Have a good weekend.

Happy Knitting!

Susan

Time for Inventory

2008-05-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

We'll be closed next week for inventory. Groan. I was on a panel discussion at DKC last year http://www.downtownknitcollective.ca/dkc_prevmeetings.html (scroll down to the May 2007 meeting to read about it). There were four of us who work "in the industry". One question was "What is the worst part of your job?" My response was taking inventory. People seemed genuinely surprised by my answer, except for one of the panel members who used to work for another distributor. One of the members asked why and I replied that it's hot and dirty. It's amazing how filthy some of the bags can get. Everybody wears their oldest clothes. We usually go through a full bottle of hand soap in the ladies room while we're working. We work in pairs, one person counts and the other records. I'm not good with ladders so I'll count the lower shelves and my partner counts the higher one. I have a feeling it might take a bit longer this year. We have a lot more product, both yarn and gift, than last year. We count everything once, then a different pair will re-count it. That normally takes two or three days. Once that is done, we go back into the office and start modifying the various inventory items to make sure we have the correct quantities in the system.

I've been working on the website again this week. I got all the Lana Grossa wool sock yarns updated. You can see the page here:
http://www.estelledesigns.ca/images/Lana%20Grossa/Lana%20Grossa%20Yarns.htm

I've also put images on several of the pages. Karen Lawrence of Sheepstrings in Huntsville designed a cute shawl/shrug our of our Superfine Alpaca Paint so I put a picture on that page.
http://www.estelledesigns.ca/images/Estelle/EstelleAlpaca%20Paint.htm

I had a nice compliment from my friend Joan today. She sent me an email to say she really enjoys my blog, it makes her feel like we've just been talking when we haven't. She says that for people who don't know me I write exactly the way I talk.

I haven't been doing very much personal knitting this week, a little bit on a sock but that's all. I've testing a cotton/silk blend. It is 70% Pima Cotton, 30% Silk. It's nice but I'm not that crazy about it. Yesterday Chris brought in a sample ball of a hand dyed pure wool that would felt. It's a little scratchy and it's too thin. We're going to ask the mill in Italy to make up some that would be closer to a worsted weight.

My friend Susan and I are going to the ballet on Sunday. We're seeing Cinderella. I was telling Chris that we were seeing it and he called me a princess! And then he said he really enjoyed calling me that. Brother!

I think this weekend we're going to get the summer furniture out of the crawl space. We have wrought iron chairs and a table for the front veranda. It really needs painting so my father bought a couple of cans of spray paint. Our front gate also needs painting so hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Now that all the inventory has been quarantined in warehouse, I have the urge to go shopping back there. Oh well, it will have to wait for a week. It's not as if I don't have enough in my stash already:)

Have a great weekend and happy knitting!

Susan

Friday Again

2008-05-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

It's Friday again. Considering this was a short week it has felt very long. Everyone seems to be dragging today. I think the fact that is has been so cold this week has added to it. I'm getting tired of wearing my winter clothes. I want to break out the summer dresses and sandals. It's going to be a bit warmer this weekend but still not hot. I'll probably be writing in a month about how hot it is:)

We had a visit on Wednesday from Vogue Knitting. I understand they are doing a piece in the next issue about Canada. They had been at Needful and they sent them to us. I didn't get to meet them unfortunately but they spent several hours in Chris's office.

I'm just about finished updating the website. It hasn't been this current for quite a while. Once you get into a rhythm it really doesn't take too long. This afternoon I finished up all the commission files for our reps and got them in the mail. They'll all be happy campers next week when they arrive.

I knit a test swatch this week out of a 70% Cotton, 30% Silk blend. It is very nice, a crepe sort of texture, but I don't think we're going to go with it. I'm now going to do a swatch of the same blend but a lighter weight. I think it will be a DK but we'll see. I've been working on a multi-directional scarf out of our Superfine Alpaca. It's looking really nice and will only take two skeins.

Karen from Sheepstrings in Huntsville stopped in this afternoon to pick up an order of Cascade 220 she emailed me yesterday. She and her husband had to take their dog to a specialist in Newmarket so she decided to pick her order up. I'm going to the cottage in June so I'll stop in and see her. She really liked the new colours of Arequipa and Cadenza so I gave her a couple of sample skeins to play with.

We're going to the garden centre after work today to get plants for the garden. It should be a good weekend for gardening. I think we're going to try a few different plants this year just to be different. I'll post a picture once it's done.

I bought a dress for the wedding last Friday at my hair dressers. They sell great clothes there. It is black and cream and very 60s looking. I'm very pleased with it, fits perfectly.

Well I'm of to the garden centre. Have a good weekend.

Happy Knitting!
Susan

Two Reviews

2008-05-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

I saw We Will Rock You on Saturday and it rocked! It was so much fun. The plot was totally silly and you could see they actors weren't even try to take themselves seriously. The band they had was fabulous. I ended up buy Queen's Greatest Hits CD. We had lunch at the Senator on Victoria St beforehand. It looks the same as it always had. Lunch was delicious and reasonable.

Last night I saw something diametrically opposed to WWRY, My Fair Lady. It's playing at the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts. It was absolutely wonderful. The woman that played Eliza had an amazing voice. When I looked at the programme and saw who was playing Henry Higgins I recognized the name, Christopher Casanove. He played in many Masterpiece Theatre productions back in the 80s, most notably The Duchess of Duke Street. He did a really good job as Higgins. The costumes and sets were wonderful. The orchestra was great and of course the songs in My Fair Lady are so wonderfully recognizable. I almost elbowed the woman sitting next to me when she started humming along. Fortunately she caught herself. We had a great dinner at an Italian restaurant on Yonge St. It was a late night though. We didn't get home until 11:40 pm which is way past my bedtime. Oh well, it the Victoria Day weekend so three days to relax.

I've been busy updating the website again this week. I've updated the Cascade and King Cole pages. I'm hoping to get a pdf file from King Cole with all their patterns on it so I can put that on also. I think I'll tackle Scheepjes next.

I'm working on a scarf that is worked in different direction out of the new Superfine Alpaca. I'll be playing with that this weekend. I'll also be making sure that the decreases at the top of an Alpaca hat are correct. This is not my design but I'm having trouble interpreting the instructions so I'll have to knit the top of the crown myself and re-word the pattern.

We've decided to hold off planting the garden until next weekend. The weather isn't supposed to be great this weekend. Maybe we'll get some of the summer furniture out though. It's always a challenge to get the doors opened and closed before the cat tries to escape. My cat, Toby, is pretty old (I think he is 18 but he was a stray when I got him so it's hard to be certain) and doesn't move as quickly as he used to.

I'm meeting my friend Cynthea at Bayview Village tomorrow after she's through at the Textile Museum. I'm hoping to look for a dress for my god daughter's wedding. I have six weeks so there's no panic.

I'm getting my hair cut after work. I'd better go, we're closing at 3 today.

Have a good weekend.
Happy Knitting!
Susan

Open House

2008-05-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

We had an Open House here last weekend (only for yarn store owners, not the general public). We have one twice a year to launch the Autumn and Spring collections. It's an opportunity for store owners to get a preview of the collections. Sunday was the busiest day although we did have quite a few stores come on Monday also. Chris came up with the brilliant idea to set up an concept shop at the back of the warehouse. We used some of the booth panels we use at the Gift Show (that's a whole other story). We displayed the top 50 colours of Cascade 220, our Cloud Cotton, the new Superfine Alpaca Paints, Cadenza, Arequipa and the new Arequipa solids.

The response to our new qualities was excellent. We are now offering Eco Bamboo knitting needles and crochet hooks. We're only doing straight needles and double points for now. I wasn't happy with the join on the circular samples we were sent. It was fine on the larger sizes but not on the smaller ones. Apparently the supplier has invested in new machinery to fix the problem. I hope so as I don't use straight needles, just circular and double point.

Mrs. King finished my shawl so it was on display and people loved it.

I've been busy the past couple of weeks working on our website. I've got Lang all updated with pages ready to load in the near future. Today I finished the Cascade page. I did a bit of work on the Lana Grossa sock page but I've got more to do on it. They've got 3 new sock qualities to go on.

The award ceremony I attended last Friday went very well although the drive down was horrible. It started to rain very heavily just past Trenton to the point that visibility was terrible. Add to that the big transports passing and rain spraying up from that, it was scary. The drive back was much better. Here's shot of me handing out an award. The girl in the picture told me that my brother was her favorite teacher ever.

The reactions of some of the kids were pretty cute, especially the kindergarten ones. One little girl was so upset about having her name called she literally clung to her father's leg and was sobbing. On the opposite end of the spectrum one cute little guy in a yellow dress shirt and tie jumped up in the air when his name was called.

I had an email this afternoon from our sales rep Diane in Victoria. She'd been to see The Button and Needlework Boutique in Victoria. The owners had knit this really adorable doggy sweater out of Jo Sharp Alpaca Kid Lustre for her chihuahua. Too cute.

I'm going to see We Will Rock You tomorrow. Should be good. Everyone that's seen said it was fantastic, not much plot but the music is great.

My father called me yesterday afternoon to tell me that a pair of Canada Geese and 7 goslings were walking along the fence at the end of the backyard. I wonder how they got there??? He said the goslings were tiny so they couldn't have flown there. In another ornithological anomoly, we have a pair of red winged black birds at our back yard feeder. I always thought they were marsh dwelling birds. Strange. I must say we are getting a really wide variety of birds at the back feeder this year: cardinals, blue jays, brown headed cow birds, both the red and white breasted nuthatches, purple finches, gold finches, grackles, doves, chickadees and of course sparrows. It's quite entertaining.

Well, I'd better go. Have a good weekend.

Happy knitting!
Susan

The Frolic part 2

2008-05-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

The Frolic was a success although I understand attendance was down. The fact that the TTC went out on strike at midnight Friday took the entire city by surprise. They only gave 48 minutes notice. Quite a few people got stranded downtown. I've spoken to several of the vendors this week and they all felt that it was a roaring success.

We had 2 US vendors for the first time. I talked to both of them. Rebecca from Busy Hands in Ann Arbor were comparing notes on one company that we deal with (who will remain nameless) and discovered that they were just a difficult south of the border as they are north of the border.

I'm taking tomorrow off. My father and I are driving to Gananoque to attend an award ceremony. My younger brother died very suddenly in 2005. The school he taught at established an award in his memory. The criteria is the the recipient must share their talents with humility. This is what they felt my brother did. So we go every year and I present the award to one student in each classroom. The look of joy and excitement on the younger students faces is wonderful to see. Makes you realize how old and jaded you are (not really).

Mrs. King has finished the shawl I gave her last week. I'm going to take it home and block it. I can see where I stopped and she started. Nothing that blocking the heck out of it won't fix.

Lynn from Mary's Yarns finished a baby blanket and baby sweater and hat out of Cloud Cotton. I have it hanging up on display. The ladies in the office went crazy for the set. It really is lovely. She was in a bit of a rush to finish it and didn't have a button so I told her I'd go through my button box and bring one in.
I finished the neck warmer thing out of Superfine Alpaca. I'm quite pleased with it, especially the fact that I did it out of one skein. Now to right up the patterns for both of them. One of my least favourite things. I find I get so close to the pattern that it's easy to miss small errors or omissions.

Well, I'm off to Scarborough Town Centre to buy a wedding shower gift for my god-daughter. She's getting married at the end of June and is registered at the Bay. Maybe I should look for a dress while I'm down there. Having just paid over $1300 in income tax (ouch!) I have to hope they have a good sale on.

Have a good weekend and happy knitting.

Susan

The Frolic

2008-04-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the Downtown Knit Collective's 11th annual Knitter's Frolic. I missed it last year as I was in PEI. I'm volunteering tomorrow from 9 to 2. I'm working the workshop registration desk. I'll take my knitting to work on between classes. After I'm through I'll take a stroll through the market. It's getting bigger every year. Joan Kass really has organizing the Frolic down to a science. She does a fantastic job! This year it is two days for the first time. People are coming from Washington DC to attend. I mailed flyers to all the yarn stores in Ontario, Quebec, upstate New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan. I also printed name tags for all the vendors, teachers, volunteers and the executive.

Yesterday Jennifer and I unpacked a couple of skid from Lang. This shipment contained the new colours of Maxi Tosca, Tosca and Mille Colori that Chris ordered when he was in Cologne. It also contained West, which is a new quality. I think it will be the big winner this season.

We also got a Jo Sharp shipment and a Lana Grossa shipment. The Lana Grossa shipment contained their samples so I've spent this afternoon getting shade cards organized. They've sent lots of sample balls for our reps however the ball bands are blank. So, that means Monday I'll be sitting at my desk with a set of shade cards and the bags of yarn trying to figure out which is which. I then have to make up stickers to put on the ball bands for the reps so that they'll know which quality it is. Fun! Good thing I have a pretty good eye.

Mrs. King finished a hat and scarf out of our new Superfine Alpaca Paint. It looks really good but I think I'll adjust the pattern to make the scarf a bit longer.

I'm almost finished the neck warmer thingy that I'm doing out of it. Maybe I'll finish it at the Frolic. Got about 18" done on the Feather and Fan shawl and I gave that to Mrs. King to finish. She's really fast and I have a deadline on this project.

My sister and my niece are coming for a visit in June so I'm taking a week off. My god-daughter is getting married on the Saturday so they're going to come to that. I've known her mother since we were ten so it won't be a problem. Should be fun.

It's raining today which is good. The grass really needs it. It's so nice to see the flowers coming up and the trees out in bloom. I was going to buy a finch feeder for the back yard but the purple finches and yellow finches are using our regular feeder so I guess I won't have to after all.

Well, it's almost time to leave. Have a great weekend.

Happy knitting!

Susan

Doughnut Day

2008-04-11T11:21:00.000-07:00

It's doughnut day at Estelle today. Every time someone has a birthday, Caroline buys doughnuts for the office. Today is my birthday! All I can say is I'm way too young to be 53.

The Fall 2008 samples are starting to trickle in from our suppliers. I've gone through the Lang samples and once again they have a really strong offering. King Cole also have a good programme this season. I still have to go through Lana Grossa and Madil. I don't think the Scheepjes or Dale samples have arrived yet. I'm updating the price list for the sales reps as I get information.

Once we have everything, we'll make up sets of samples for all our reps. They will be shipped to them in early May and then we'll all hit the road again.

Chris got back from Cologne earlier in the week. He brought back some interesting samples and had really good meetings with our suppliers.

It has been such a beautiful week it's too bad it is ending with such a miserable day. It has rained almost all day and been very windy. I had to take some samples of our new Superfine Alpaca to Mrs. King today to have her knit up some swatches to include with the rep samples. It was so windy I could feel my car being blown around.

I had a really nice dinner at my friend Joan's on Saturday night. She had invited our friend Cynthea also. We met in our first year of university, 35 years ago (now I feel old) and have been friends ever since. When we turned 40 we took a cruise to Bermuda and when we turned 50 we did a walking tour of Tuscany. I loved Italy and would love to go back. Maybe some day. Joan was have a knitting dilemma but I think she's OK now.

I'm working away on a lace shawl out of the new solid colour Arequipa. I chose the red because it is a really beautiful red. I'll hopefully have enough done after the weekend that it will look like a shawl and I can take a picture of it.

I'm getting my hair cut after work, not before it needs it. I can't believe how fast my hair grows. I have been going to the same stylist for 7 years and just let her do what she wants. I trust her.

Well I'd better go. Have a good weekend.

Happy Knitting!
Susan

Spring!

2008-04-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

I didn't get a chance to update my blog last week. I was working in the warehouse most of the day. Brian, the fellow in the warehouse, was off that day so I was pulling orders.

I was on the road yesterday, up to Lakefield, Lindsay and Uxbridge. It was a beautiful day for a drive. I stopped in to see the ladies at Happenstance Yarns and Books. Lakefield is such a pretty town. Then I drove to Lindsay and dropped of some yarn at Kawartha Yarns. Naz moved earlier this year to a much better spot on the main street of Lindsay. She's getting lots of walk by traffic at this location.

After I left Naz I went for a stroll on the main street. I wandered into a nice clothing store and they carry my favourite brand of jeans. I tried on a pair of the new wide leg ones and bought them. I like to help the local economy:)

I filled up my car at the Loblaws in Lindsay. Gas was 2 cents a litre less there than at the other stations. Don't know how they do it but when gas is $1.119 every little bit helps.

My next stop was On The Lamb in Uxbridge. The store is in the back of the old tin mill on the main street. There is a really nice restaurant, a jeweller and a gallery in the building also. The mill has been completely refurbished.

I was home by 4 and went for my daily 3 km walk. It is so nice to be able to walk on the sidewalks again and not to have to wear boots. I was having to walk on the road most of the time because the sidewalks were too treacherous. It's raining/snowing at the moment but we're supposed to have a great weekend with the temperature up to 14 on Sunday.

Chris bought me a new toy earlier in the week - a new scanner! I've been scanning balls of yarn all week and setting up web pages for the new yarns we'll be introducing for Fall 08. We'll publish them after we start selling the Fall yarns. I'll be scanning more today. Chris is in Germany right now at the Cologne fair and left me a long list of things to do. I still have to scan the new Cascade yarns we'll be offering and the new solid colour Arequipa. The colours are really beautiful. I see something in lace for this yarn. Maybe I'll take a sample home on the weekend and play with it.

I've been working on a neck warmer out of our new Superfine Alpaca. It is really, really lovely to work with. I'll finish it off on the weekend, block it and have a picture of it next week. I think there will be a few iterations of this as I'm playing with buttonhole placement.

Well, I'd better get back to scanning yarn. Have a great weekend!

Happy Knitting!

Susan

Rooster and DKC

2008-03-20T10:39:00.000-07:00

I forgot to tell you about the ballet we saw a couple of weeks ago. It was their Winter Mixed programme and it was fabulous. The first ballet was 24 Preludes by Chopin. It was choreographed by a Canadian choreographer that is very avant garde. The costumes were made of sheer black mesh with shiny black tape over strategic areas. It was interesting the combination of classical music with very modern ballet. It was really wonderful. The second ballet was Soldier's Mass. It was very powerful the way the dancers brought the violence of war and death to the stage. The last ballet was Rooster set to the Rolling Stones early music. It was great! The costumes were reminiscent of the early 60s London scene. The dancing was fabulous. I can hardly wait until they perform Rooster again.

We had DKC last night. I met Fiona, Bonnie, Sandra and Trish for dinner before hand at Pasta Perfection on Yonge St. We meet there every month. The food is always great. It's cheap and cheerful, just like us. Here we are after dinner.

The speakers this month were the ladies from Cabin Fever. They were talking about self publishing their patterns and books. They used a great format of interviewing each other about how they got started, what difficulties they encountered, what was the best and worst of it and so on. They were great, very funny also.

I was able to get quite a bit done on the licorice allsorts sock. I'm ready to start the heel flap. I'm working on a 2.5mm needle but am thinking that if I use this yarn again I'd use a 2.75mm.

Yesterday I wore a Hanne Falkenberg jacket I made years ago. I actually forgot all about it (terrible thing to admit isn't it?) Anyway, I wore it to DKC and people were quite interested in it. Many said they'd seen her kits but had never seen it made up. Here's a picture of it (not mine, from Hanne's website).

Well, I'd better go. It's Easter weekend so we're off tomorrow but back on Monday. Have a good weekend.

Happy Knitting!

Susan

Cloud Cotton

2008-03-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

Where has the week gone? It's Friday already. It's been a busy week here at Estelle. Mrs. King finished the baby blanket so I picked it up from her on Monday. We're calling it the Hearts and Flowers Baby Blanket. I think it turned out quite well.

We're having another one done. I did a test swatch last night and wrote up the pattern this morning. I took it to Mrs. King to knit it up. This is the swatch.
It will be 9 blocks across with a garter stitch border. Totally reversible. It really is beautiful cotton to knit with. I still haven't decided which colour I want for me. Do I want to make a white cardigan for summer or should I go for the darkest blue? Decisions, decisions.

I finished the first sock for Annie and I've started the second. Here's what it looks like before blocking.

I don't know why but I always block my socks. I think they look better for some reason. I also started a cardigan out of Cascade 220. I decided to use the Horseshoe Lace stitch and have it done in one piece to the armhole. I think the bodice will be stocking stitch. I also put an eyelet border at the bottom and will continue with that for the trim. Once I'm a little further along I'll take a shot of it for you.

It's a beautiful sunny day today. I took a picture of the snow mountain last week. This is what it looked like on Monday after all that snow.

I think I'll splurge and get my car washed on the way home from work. It is so filthy I can't stand it any more. Well, it's almost time to go. Have a good weekend.

Happy Knitting!

Susan

More Snow

2008-03-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we're going to get another storm tonight and tomorrow. I don't know where we're going to put it. It's almost getting dangerous. This morning pulling out of the garage there was a little boy I couldn't see because the snow is piled up so high. It's a good thing his father was walking directly behind him. I took a picture of the mountain of snow in the parking lot here. I wonder how big it will be by Monday.

I started a new sock last night. It is Stile from Lana Grossa. It's a Missoni inspired pattern. Mary from Mary's Yarns calls this the licorice allsorts colour way. It really does look like licorice.

We're just about ready to produce a couple of free patterns for Cloud Cotton. The photos have been taken. I've got one of the patterns ready and the other should be to me on Monday. We're also have a baby sweater and blanket done. I also organized an intarsia blanket in three colours. I thought I'd better do the first two bands of blocks myself to be sure it was working. It did so I've given it to Mrs. King to finish off. I haven't knit intarsia (the I word) for many, many years. I'd forgotten how much I dislike it. It's the only form of knitting I really don't like. The blanket should be really cute when it's done. It's in white, butter yellow and spring green.

I've picked out a bag of Cascade 220 for myself. It is a heather, colour 9336 which they call Lapis. I'm thinking probably a cardigan, maybe with lace to the armholes and a solid bodice. We'll see what it calls out to be once I start winding the skeins. I love winding skeins. You get a real feel of the yarn and it tells you what it wants to be.

Well, I'd better go. The snow has already started. We have ballet tickets again on Sunday. An Italian Straw Hat was amazing. The costumes are all black and white, the only colour is in the sets. For instance, in the Parisian hat shop the backdrop was all hot pink. We're seeing a mixed programme this week. One of them is Rooster which is set to early Rolling Stones music. Should be different.

Happy Knitting!

Susan

Even More Yarn

2008-02-29T11:15:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I last posted. It's been really busy around here the last week or so. Last Friday we got probably the biggest shipment of yarn we've ever received. I took a before picture of the receiving half of the warehouse.

The shipment arrived at 10 minutes to 3 last Friday afternoon (we close at 3 on Fridays). The yarn was packed in bales. There were 38 bales in total. Each bale weighed 90 kilos (198 pounds). This is what one of the bales looked like.

The warehouse crew started unpacking it Monday morning. This is a video of one of the bales being cut into. They have to be very careful not to cut too deeply or they'd hit a bag of yarn. You can see it expand as air gets into it.

It was almost all unpacked and on the shelves by early afternoon. Then the orders had to be pulled, invoiced and shipped. So we've been busy in the office too.

I bought a new digital camera last week so I've been having fun playing with it. It's amazing what you can do with it. As soon as I figured out how to take movies with it I was filming everything: my cat, Jennifer in the office. She doesn't like that very much. I won't post that one.

I'm turning the heel of my latest sock. I really like the way this Jawoll Aktion is striping. I think I might give this pair to Annie in the warehouse. She's working for us on a temporary basis. She's an excellent worker. Very intuitive.

Well that's all for now. I'm off to get a much needed hair cut. My friend Susan and I have ballet tickets for Sunday afternoon so I'll let you know how it was. We're seeing An Italian Straw Hat.

Have a good weekend and happy knitting.
Susan

My New Year's Resolution

2008-01-31T12:16:00.000-08:00

My New Year's Resolution was to update my blog more frequently. As with most resolutions, this hasn't happened.

We had a lovely Christmas with my sister's family. They live in Orwell Cove, PEI. It was a very old fashioned holiday. We managed to leave just as a major winter storm was arriving. The snow was starting as we walked up the stairs to get on the plane. Lucky us.

I took a pair of socks to knit on the plane. I had promised Jennifer in the office I'd make them for her birthday (last April!) I finished them and she loves wearing them on really cold days.

I finished another pair of socks which I gave to Lalenie. She is our shipper. She very kindly made my father a batch of her wonderful tea biscuits and wouldn't let him pay for the ingredients, so I made her the socks. She says she's going to wear them tomorrow since we're expecting another bad storm.

I'm now working on a pair of socks for myself out of Lang's Jawoll Aktion. Jawoll has always been my favourite sock yarn because it has a spool of re-inforcing thread inside the ball. It is dyed to match the striping pattern of the yarn.

We got our shipment of Cloud Cotton in last week. It is such beautiful, organic cotton. It doesn't even feel like cotton when you knit with it. I'm still trying to decide which colour I want. I'm leaning toward the darkest blue but there's no hurry.

That's it for now. I'll bring my camera in to take a picture of my socks.

Happy Knitting!
Susan

More White Christmas

2007-12-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-18T12:30:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-14T09:17:00.000-08:00

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

2007-10-31T10:52:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2007-09-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-31T09:25:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-02T06:24:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-27T07:19:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2007-07-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

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