A sale, sample and chewed needles!

 A big thank you to everyone who came out on Friday night for Jingle into Christmas.  It was so great to see so many people out and so many familiar faces.  And a big thank you to Stellar Coffee for making yummy coffee all night long!  Be sure to check out their website as they have great gift baskets for the holidays.  Perfect for everyone on your list!  Juliet had lots of fun greeting everyone who came in.  She was exhausted by the end of the evening with so many visitors!

I found a use for the leftover yarn from the Jacket from Hell.  And fortunately this time the project was quick, easy and fun!  I knit the Rustling Leaves Beret from the new book Coastal Knits (available in store!).  I haven't blocked it yet but I was so happy to finish it so quickly I decided to wear it right away.  Will block it tonight!

And apparently I have yet to learn my lesson.  This would be needles #3 that my bigger dog Parka has chewed.  They are just too much like sticks for her to resist.  One of the many reasons she is not allowed in the shop.  Another reason is she still thinks yarn is fun to play with.  It has given me a good excuse for switching projects.  I wasn't a big fan of how this was starting to knit up anyways.  SO I've decided to knit some hand warmers instead.  Sadly there is no saving the needles.

The cute face of a needle destroyer.

Gift Registry

Have a Knits by the Sea wish list?  Tired of dropping hints to all your friends and family about what exact yarn and colour way you want?  We have the solution for you!!  This year we are offering a gift registry!  Come to the shop, fill out a form with all the yarns, patterns and notions you want and we will keep it here on file until Christmas!  So now all you have to do is tell your loved ones to go to Knits by the Sea and we will help them with the rest.  This gift registry will be a permanent addition to the shop so you can use it for birthdays, anniversaries or any other occasion you think someone might need some help in what to get you.  

Can't come into the store?  Check out our online shop and either use the wish list option there or email us at info@knitsbythesea.com.  If you email us your list we can keep it on file here in the shop for when family and friends come in or call us!  So start dreaming up all the projects you would like to knit and crochet and come in or email us your wish list today!

Jingle Jingle!!

Juliet all dressed up for last years Jingle into Christmas

It's coming up to that special time of year again in Tofino where the shops stay open late and have sales and refreshments!  Knits by the Sea will be participating again this year and we are very excited.  Last year it was a great turn out and it was so great to see so many people out and shopping locally!  This year we will be offering 15% off everything in the store this Friday November 25 from 6:00 - 10:00 (some exceptions will apply) and 10% off everything in the store all day Saturday.  Stellar Coffee from Ucluelet will be joining us on the Friday.  Come and taste some great locally roasted coffee with a little extra Christmas "cheer".  They will also be taking orders for their gift baskets.  A great gift for everyone on your list - locally roasted delicious coffee!  Can't make it to Tofino for the sale?  Call in and we can take your order over the phone!

And just in the new Vogue Knitting for winter!  The issue includes a fun interview with Martha Stewart and as always some fun patterns.  Be sure to check it out!

The Jacket from Hell

It's such a pretty jacket for being so awful to knit.  Most of you who have come to the shop while I was working on it or talking about it will know it better as the F#^*$ing Jacket.  And I think it has really earned the title as the Jacket from Hell as well.

It all started with me being asked to be a bridesmaid in my cousin's wedding in Toronto last year.  I thought it would be nice to have a lacy jacket to wear over the strapless dress in case it was chilly.  Found the pattern in Vogue Knitting and off I went.  There were some false starts...but I had left myself plenty of time I thought to figure this out.  WRONG.  Some errata helped with some of the issues.  Managed to get the body done in time but I was furiously knitting the sleeves on the airplane ride to Toronto.  Then...I was stuck!  Could not figure out why the pattern wasn't working.  I have restarted the sleeves more times than I would like to admit.  Many glasses of wine have helped when tearing it out.  Figured out how to knit the sleeves over a year later as I couldn't face it for quite some time and cast them off in early November.  I thought my days of struggling with this jacket were behind me.

Me trying to piece the jacket together

NOPE!  Who knew that piecing it together would be as difficult as knitting it.  Yup...it was difficult right to the bitter end.  But now I have a lovely sparkly pink jacket that I have sworn at so many times if I had a swear jar I was putting money into I could of at least enjoyed wearing it somewhere warm...like the Bahamas!

A fun adventure!

It was quite the fun filled day yesterday and I have lots of pictures to show for it!  Carol one of the shops regular stitchers invited me and Sarah with her to visit her friend Jane up at Westerly Wynds farm.  Jane is well known in the area for her amazing farm and love of animals.  Being a former vet for the area many people got acquainted with her when their animals needed care.  Now retired Jane and her husband keep very busy with their farm.  The farm is located about 30 minutes outside Ucluelet but because the road is a logging road a proper truck is needed to access this farm.  It is a very remote farm with nothing but beautiful ocean views and trees surrounding it.

Upon arriving Jane immediately took us on a tour of her farm and we had a chance to meet lots of different animals.  Two great greeters were one of her cats Maxie that followed us for the whole walk and one of her beautiful big "guard" dogs.  

Our first stop was to visit the angora bunnies!  So fluffy and cute.  Honey Bunny was kind enough to let us pet her.  

Then we went to the beautiful look out point.  Jane was pointing out some spots for Sarah.

There were lots of varieties of birds to see.  My favourite were the peacocks.

And getting to see an angora goat was lots of fun.  He was not allowed to roam free like the other animals.  He has a tendency to ram things.  And he greeted us with some very strong rams on the gate.  Jane said his favourite thing to ram is shiny little cars.  Such a cute face for so much trouble!

And of course there were lovely alpacas roaming around the farm.  I managed to get pictures of them after they were put in their pen for the night.

It was a very fun visit and a pleasure to meet Jane.  It was great to meet all her little animals.  And we didn't leave empty handed!  With all those lovely angora bunnies she had lots of angora fleece!  I managed to leave with a big bag full of lovely shades of angora.  This angora will be available in Knits by the Sea very soon.  It is a MUST feel when you come by.  So lovely and soft it is really irresistible.  It will make any non-spinner decide it's time to try!

Happy Movember!

Well it's that special time of year when many men will grow moustaches to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer research.  This can often result is some pretty awful facial hair for a full month.  But it's all for a good cause!  To get involved or donate you can go here.Want a Movember moustache without the commitment?  Or can't grow a moustache?  Well Knits by the Sea has the solution - a Movember cowl!  Learn to knit this fun cowl in a three hour class on Tuesday November 8.  For full class details and info on all our upcoming classes go here.  Happy Movember!!