Around The GTA!

I get great inspriation looking through all the finished objects in the GTA and The Naked Sheep group on Ravelry. We have great talent in GTA and here are a few that I totally love and wish I had all the time in the world to knit:

The Knitting Basket has a great number of free patterns for you to knit and crochet and I especially love the owl coffee cozy:

In the Naked Sheep group, Dunskins (ravelry link) just finished a few pairs of fingerless mitts. Check out her Finished Objects page in Ravelry.

Chumily (ravelry link) finished two great hats designed by Ysolda.

Gretel, knit with 2.5 skeins of Mirasol Miski:

Ripley, knit with 1.1 skeins of Baby Alpaca Sport, one of the softest yarns we have!

Balaclava

At one of our knit nights, Patricia, one of our Sheep knitters finished her charity Balaclava made with Mission Falls. When she was finished, she wondered if it would fit a child and I said "let me know try it on - I have a small head and we will see!" It fits:

She clicked the freaking camera at the same time I decided to cross my eyes. NICE.

Fiddlehead Mitten Game

Believe it or not, it is very hard to pick 5 colours to knit your mittens and then you have to choose a 6th colour for the lining! We have come up with a game to help you.

Stand beside our Lantern Moon Tower, close your eyes and pick 5 balls of yarn. Surprisingly - 9 out of 10 times, all the colours look awesome together.

Fiddlehead Mitten KAL - The Beginning....

Our Fiddlehead Mitten KAL started out great! We took pictures of everyone's casting on:

Gives me shivers - they all look great! We look forward to seeing your progress and FOs!!

Berroco - How we Love Thee!

Look what Berroco came up with - some FREE mini knit patterns:

Oh My Goodness - super sweet! Can you imagine a clothes line with these hanging from it?

GO HERE TO GET THE PATTERNS

Fiddlehead Mitten KAL

Just a reminder our Fiddlehead Mitten KAL starts Wednesday November 25th, 7pm.

Are your fingers just itching to get started?

Sale Area!

At the Sheep we have marked down some pretty fantastic yarn and we can't wait for it to live at your house! At the back of the store we have put yarn on sale because we have small amounts of colours, or the yarn might be discontinued. Sales prices are marked down 10% to 50%!

Come on in and check the back wall out, there might be something waiting just for you!

We also have a great selection of books at 50% off!

Magnetic Boards are at The Shop!

Just in time for our Fiddlehead Mitten KAL start!!! I ordered these awesome magnetic boards to help you keep track of all your colourwork/cable/lace charts. I've had one for years and find it to be invaluable when reading charts.

Basically you put your paper chart on the board and use the magnets to hold the paper to the board. Will make it easier for your eye to go to the line you are reading and your knitting will be faster because you are not spending time figuring out which line you are on!

We also have a flexible one and a stand to hold up the solid board!

Fleece Artist Roving and Casbah!

Take a look at these BEAUTIFUL Fleece Artist rovings! Over 50 new braids just came in in their Merino and Blue Faced Leicester. Sigh....the colours are so pretty....


And then we come to Casbah, I don't need to say a thing. One of our absolute favourite sock yarns of all time! Pop in soon to check out the 20 new colours that just arrived!

Fiddlehead KAL update!

Hey folks!

A fresh supply of Tanis' lovely Fiddlehead mitten kits just arrived at the Sheep, in perfect time for our Knitalong that starts next Wednesday. The first batch didn't last long, so drop by soon if you want to score a kit for yourself.



Of course, you can knit Fiddleheads with a huge selection of yarns; another favourite of ours in the Diamond Luxury Alpaca Peru. This stuff is soft, warm and fluffy, What more could you want in a mitt!? We are expecting 25 new colours of Alpaca Peru to arrive at the Sheep any day now, so you will have pleantly of choice for your pair of Fiddleheat mittens.



Here is a lovely example in just 2 colours of Alpaca peru, knit by Becky...



and take a look at the pair that I just cast on in the same yarn...



With so many options, the toughest thing about this project is picking out yarn!

New Book!

We received a beautiful book this week and the patterns are super duper awesome. I have always want to make a mitered square coat and when I saw the one of the front of this book, I think I might have drooled a bit. Opps! The cost of the book is $32.00!

February Baby Sweater Class!

February Baby Sweater– $50.00 + materials & includes EZ Knitters Almanac book November 29th & December 6th, 10am to noon.

Class Length: 2 – two hour sessions
Instructor: Kate Atherley

If you need to knit a quick gift for a new arrival or want to upsize this pattern for yourself, (http://www.flintknits.com/) join Kate to master this wonderful pattern. Included is EZ Knitter’s Almanac book which contains 11 more patterns you can knit in the future. Please print the lady sized version pattern from http://www.flintknits.com/. Thanks Pam for a great pattern!

The baby version, knit with 400 yards of dk weight yarn and 4mm needles

The Toddler (knit with 4 balls of Silk Garden & Adult version (knit with 5 skeins of cascade220):

Lush Scarf!

Oh mamma mia - Classic Elite Lush is one awesome yarn to knit with and to wear. Considering this yarn has 50% angora, I would have thought the fluff would have flown off the yarn, but it doesn't - at all! It is fluffy and beautiful and oh so lovely to knit with! We have great colours and these lovely scarf is made with two skeins. Can you say Christmas gift knitting? Yeppers - you can!

I am sorry for the not so great picture, I pretty much suck at taking good ones - where is Sarah when you need her?

Scowl/Cowl - You Decide!

Kate Atherley aka Wisehildaknits designed this awesome Cowl hybrid called The Scowl! Sounds scary? Nope - just plain fantastic. Each one uses one skein of Berroco Quick, two large buttons, a bit of time and viola - one super duper neck warmer - or Christmas gift!

Vampire Boyfriend Socks

Emily test knit the Vampire Boyfriend socks designed by Kate Atherley using one skein of Tanis Fibre Arts fingering weight yarn in Plum.








As usual, Kate's sock designs are awesome. SEE MORE of Kate's designs HERE.

New Malabrigo Worsted Colours.

If the colours couldn't get any better, Malabrigo has out done themselves this time. Look at these fantastic colours:

Seriously people - these are so awesome! We stock about 30 colours of malabrigo, so I am sure you can find you like! Each skein boasts 216 yards and cost $16.95.

More Sock Yarn!

We can't seem to stop ourselves from ordering more and more sock yarn. Stocked on our shelves are Lang's Aktion sock yarn. A superwash wool/nylon blend with a re-inforcing thread for the heels and toes. Each ball has 420 yards of yarny goodness and cost, now wait for it $14.95. There is enough yarn in these puppies to make a man's pair of socks!

All these colours are limited edition - so once they are gone, they are gone. The first batch seemed to fly out the door, and I;m sure these will do the same! The colours are so freaking awesome.

Fiddlehead Mitten KAL (Knit A Long)

The Naked Sheep is hosting a Fiddlehead Mitten Knit A Long (KAL)! The Fiddlehead Mitten, designed by Hello Yarn is so beautiful and easy to knit, that I bet you can't stop at just one pair!

For more colour options, check out the flickr pages and ravelry pages.

We have lots of options for you to choose from! We have Tanis Fibre Arts hand dyed superwash merino kits ($45.00), the individual pattern ($7.00) and we have a wide variety of yarns from alpaca, bamboo, mohair, merino/cashmere blends to knit your mittens with. Basically you need 325 yards of yarn for the outer mitten and 140 yards for the inner mitten.

Look at the colours Tanis dyed for these kits:

Our KAL starts on November 25th, 7pm at our regular Knit Night! Sounds like fun? Then please email us at lisa@nakedsheep.ca if you want to participate, or pop into the shop.

Blocking Wires Have Arrived!

Yep, these babies are back again! I never thought I would love blocking so much until I tried the wires. They are awesome for blocking shawls, scarfs, and sweater pieces - big and small. Or any thing you knit or crochet. You get about 20 blocking wires in the cardboard tube, a yard stick for measuring and all for $37.95.



I love that you can insert the wires into the edge stitches, adjust the size easily with pins and away you go. Knitting Daily wrote a post on how to block a lace shawl please GO HERE for pictures and how to!

Learn to Knit Lace Class

We have a class coming up to teach you how to knit lace! Join Kate on November 15th and 22nd from 10am to noon to learn how to work lace stitches, how read and understand lace patterns in both chart and written form.

Kate Atherley will provide tips and techniques to make lace knitting easy and fun. We’ll also talk about properly blocking and finishing your lace to show it off properly. By the second class, you’ll be well on your way to completing your first rectangular lace scarf or shawl!

Price: $40 + materials,Includes Leaf Lace pattern. Bring or buy worsted weight yarn & 5mm needles.

Please note - You can only get this pattern at the Naked Sheep - it is an exclusive pattern design by Kate Atherley!

This is the scarf/shawl you will be making. The first one in grey is knit with Classic Elite Princess and the beautiful teal one is knit with Berroco Lustra.

When Good knits go Bad!

Our dear, dear friend Chris saw this beautiful wrap in the Vogue Fall 2009 issue and she knew she just had to knit it. We picked out the perfect yarn - Malabrigo Worsted in Hollyhock, added the needles and off she went.

However, you would think it was a successful project based on the picture below, but my friends, what looked like a simple knit, turned into a nightmare for our dear friend. I for one am not surprised Chris stuck to her guns and finished it - she is that type of person, but anyone else would have thrown it in the corner for a time out. The instructions are awful and the finished measurements reflected on the pattern are WRONG!

Vogue thinks the it should be 120" wide, and Chris' is 60" - this begs the question, did knit a gauge swatch? You betcha! Chris knows the value of doing a gauge swatch. Believe me. Just Vogue's pattern failed her. Take a look - we think it looks great on her: