Circs on Sale

Hey everybody,

for the month of July we are offering our Kertzer bamboo circular needles at 50% off! If you are a fan of these super smooth bamboo needles be sure to stock up. We won't be carrying this brand of circulars anymore, so this is your last chance! We have a good selection of sizes at the moment, but it won't stay that way for long!

Summer Hours!

We will be closing the store on Mondays for July and August.

Our Wednesday knit nights are still on - so come on and knit with us! It maybe hot outside, but we will have the air conditioner pumping when it is super hot outside.

Regular hours and classes will resume in September!

More Great Yarn on SALE!

Thats right folks, we are cleaning house, and the next great yarn to be put on sale is Be Sweet. The South African company spacializes in beautifully hand made mohair yarns; so fluffy and pretty!

All Be Sweet yarns are currently 50% off
The Medium Boucle is just $12, and everything else is $20!

Meet Ernie

We have a new addition here at the Sheep. His name is Ernie, and he was waiting for me this morning when I arrived at the store:


Ernie was keen to help me out, so I put him to work.
First, we cleaned up the shelves of yarn:



Ernie was a little small for this, but he really enjoyed rolling around in the Tanis sock yarn. (Wouldn't we all like to!)
Next, it was time for a coffee break, so we had some coffee:


Then, I showed Ernie how to knit lace, and he helped me knit the Springtime Bandit shawl I am working on for the store:



After all this, Ernie was pretty tired (so was I!) so we sat and chilled on the chairs at the front of the store:



You can make your own Ernie, in no time, with the Earnest and Georgina bear pattern from Kate Atherley. We've got them in the shop, and they knit up quickly with very little yarn. (I used Cascade 220)



Ernie looks just as cute *gasp* naked! If you don't want to knit him some clothes.

KOIGU

The name alone sends shivers down the spine of knitters all over the world...and we have a bunch of it!
Koigu, the scrupmtiously hand-dyed-in-Ontario-yarn-of-my-dreams is now at the Naked Sheep.



...I only put one of each colour into this photo, because I couldn't fit all of it into one picture! At the moment we have a lovely selection of 20 colours in a mix of solids, speckles and hand-paints, but it is quickly diminishing! The lovely folks at Koigu offer such a huge selection of colours that it's hard to tell when your favourite will appear again, so snap it up while you can!



At the moment we are carrying KPPPM and KPM, because we're crazy for socks! Each skein is 175 yards of %100 merino wool, so you can knit a pair of adult's socks from 2 skeins. But there is no reason to stop at socks, Koigu knits up beautifully in shawls, sweaters, hats; I've even seen pants knit from KPPPM (here)awesome!

Here is a look at the Spring Forward socks that I knit from 2 skeins of speckly KPPPM




Oh, and for those of you outside of the city, check out the crazy weather we had earlier today; I took this photo after it had cleared up quite a lot...and it's still a gloomy mess, but a good day for knitting.

eco scrubbing

Need a quick and fun summer project? Knit a few dish cloths! This tiny project is just a few hours worth of knitting, and you can test out as many patterns as you'd like. A machine washable dishcloth is easy to use and to clean, and it's much better than buying disposable sponges to clean your dishes!

We have knit up a few examples using Carezza Cotton. This machine washable cotton is a light worsted weight and gets 85 metres to one 50 gram ball, and it costs only $3.49! You could knit 3 solid coloured dishcloths with just 2 balls of this lovely cotton yarn.


The Ballband dishcloth. Pattern can be found here.




Clover Tweed dishcloth. Pattern can be found here.




Chinese Waves dishcloth. Pattern can be found here.

we heart silky wool

In our preperation for spring we knew we needed to stock up on Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, because it is just so lovely! This rustic, tweedy yarn is composed of 45% wool, 35% silk and 20% nylon. It knits to a light DK weight and gets 175 metres to 50grams. Silky Wool is the perfect yarn for a lightweight, all seasons garment! Our initial order was nearly gone (you guys have such great taste!) and I am happy to report that a fresh supply of colours have just arrived today, take a look...

WWKIP Day

I wanted to title this post "knitters Gone Wild" but thought better of it at the last minute...though our experinece on Saturday was pretty wild! We assembled on the Beach around noon on Saturday, and Immediately crowds of passers by gathered; some asked to take our pictures, others wanted to share stories of their knitting mothers and grandmothers, all were confused. We were not deterred, prepared with pleanty of knitting, snacks and even live music (thanks Becky!) we spent a lively afternoon stitching by the water.





Lisa next to our "food tent"...where is everybody??


Roma, with knit night regular Lucy the dog


Brenda sure loves knitting!


cooling off in the shade



Becky, she has an amazing voice!




Air Punch!

Kiddie Knitters

Over the winter we were lucky enough to have a lovely group of girls knitting with us on Monday afternoons. The group began at different levels, and over the weeks developed some very impressive knitting skills! We've parted ways for the summer (with the exception of a visit or two we hope...ladies...) and each girl has left with a summer project to knit; hats fingerless mitts, scarves and other fun stuff!


E, on the left is knitting an alligator and H on the right is knitting a squigle lace scarf




A, on the left is knitting a "silly hat" and R on the right is knitting garter stitch squares for a baby blanket



and here is the whole gang!


Have a great summer ladies!

Annie Recap

We just wanted to say a big thankyou to Annie Modesitt for visiting our store, and to everyone who came out to Annie's classes. All of us at the Sheep had a great time (and we're so excited about our PERFECT ribbing!) It was great to meet so many new people, and to see familiar faces as well. Annie is an amazing teacher, a very funny person and probably the fastest darn knitter I have ever seen! I don't think that I've ever leared so much about knitting in such a short span of time (just 3 hours!)