Two Wishes Come True.

Remember when I wished for a Brown Betty? Well, I got one! (thanks, Martha!)...proving - once again! - that those folks at Churchmouse know their stuff. The tea cozy fits perfectly.

Of course, it's so darned cute, I can't resist making one for myself! I've chosen the ruffled version with the i-cord tie.  And now I  have two skeins of Noro Silk Garden waiting to be knit up. (well, actually I have three - the yarn requirements stated in the pattern will use only a bit of the second skein, so I bought a third, planning to knit two - one for me, and one for a gift!)

And last week I wished I could read french. Or even better, have someone translate for me. Kind customer Molly asked kind customer Karen (who not only speaks and reads french, she teaches it!) to help. Here's her translation:

Live from the USA, a super soft wool that my husband went out for one Thursday evening between two meetings at the shop Cast-On-Cottage. I exchanged a number of emails with one of the employees, Mary, who helped me choose the wool from over here...my experience was even a study for a knitting lesson, to see which color would go best with my complexion and hair; pictures from my blog prove it.  My husband was amazed by all of the walls full of skeins of wool.

Um, yeah, that's much better than what Google said! Thanks Molly and Karen!!

Wishful Wednesday.

Last week, we received an email from Estelle ... who lives in France! Her husband was in Roswell on business and she wanted him to visit our shop Thursday evening to buy her yarn for a sweater. A few emails later, we learned she was planning to knit Veera Valimaki's Shift of Focus , a lovely sweater that suggests a sportweight merino blend. I visited her blog and Ravelry projects and saw she has lovely light coloring (she's also a beautiful knitter!).

The Wednesday morning ladies all agreed that the Nuna, in colorway 1015, a peachy beige would be perfect. I emailed back a photo and she agreed.

Saturday morning I had one more email, thanking us. She loved the yarn!  And later that day, I saw another photo...on her blog.

photo from le cabinet gris

along with some french words. I saw my name, and the name of the shop. but it's all in french. I wish I could read French, because something tells me Google Translate isn't quite getting it right!

Live from the USA, a super soft wool that my man has gone for Thursday night between two meetings in the store Cast-On Cottage ... I exchanged many emails with officials, Mary (Mere thanks! It was so fun!), who helped me choose the wool remote ... my case has even been a study for a knitting lessons, to see which color would go best with my complexion and hair, pictures of my blog in support ...;-) all this history that Mr. is not too taken aback by the walls of skeins ... nuna wool (merino, silk and bamboo) colori 1015

Wishful Wednesday.

This week, my wish was for self control.

I favorited this pattern back on May 14. I think that was the day Kirsten Johnstone (the designer) posted finished photos on Ravelry. You can tell from my tags - "seamless", "shibui", "fingering" - what drew me to the design...and of course that last "love" tag sums up what I thought about it!

Fast forward to early this morning when I read this post on the Shibui blog and immediately fired off an email to Theresa about how much I loved the design.

And later about how perfect it would be in the twenty some colorways of Fibre Company's Canopy Fingering that arrived yesterday.

(she agreed).

Unusual for me for a Wednesday, I worked in the shop this afternoon. So I had plenty of time to think about which colorway I might use.

A green, perhaps?

Or maybe a neutral? Or a fabulous rich pink?

Like I said, I was wishing for self control.

"was" being the operative word...

on my desk, 7:00 pm today

Wishful Wednesday.

This week, I'm wishing for a teapot, specifically a 4-cup brown betty,

photo source

to go inside my new tea cozy.

I used the Churchmouse Ribbed and Ruffled Tea Cozies pattern , a little less than one skein of Noro Kureyon, and size 7 needles (16" circular and dpn's). It took me just a few hours to knit.

The Churchmouse pattern is easy to follow and includes instructions for multiple versions. This is a great quick gift (for yourself or someone else)!

Wishful Wednesday.

Alliterative post titles and themes are all the rage in blogland. I regularly participate in Ten on Tuesday and Wordless Wednesday on my personal blog and I've been wanting to introduce something similar here.

Say hello to Wishful Wednesday!  And this week's wish. More Time. 

Yep, as simple as that. Two patterns and one yarn have been calling my name (and a few of yours as well!) lately. But I've got to be honest. I don't have the time to knit them (at least not right now!) And that's too bad, because I don't need to wish for More Money to tackle any of these. They are all sweaters. and they can all be made for around $60 or less.

First up - and coming in at $20 to $30 depending on your size - Gretel. This pattern suggests Habu cotton gima which we have in plenty of colors. I love the light pink. (and a project that takes only two cones of yarn so it must be a pretty quick knit!)

Then the gorgeous Araucania Lontue, a light-weight cotton linen blend yarn in fabulous variegated colorways. We've seen this knit into Liesl and it's fabulous! The yarn has a generous 250 yards per skein, so most sizes will take 4-5 skeins.

Another pattern suggestion is Kat Coyle's Linen Top , and it's free.

And finally Sabine. A top-down cardigan with a suggested gauge of 4-1/2 stitches per inch. Maggi's Linen, perhaps? This is another great spring/summer/fall yarn, made with 52% cotton/48% linen. Most sizes would take 6-8 balls...this is the biggest project on my wish list (in terms of time and money), but it's still a reasonable $60.

What are you wishing for this Wednesday? please share!