Projects to Keep Little Hands Busy: Part 2, Felting Beads

Make Felted Beads

Here's a great tutorial on how to make felted beads! It's easy for kids of any age, and a perfect activity for the cottage, birthday parties, and lazy summer days. 

All you'll need is:

• Wool Roving ($2.50 per packet)
• a cup of hot water
• dish soap
• an old towel. 

Dye Roving With Kool Aid

If you want to keep the muchkins busy for a bit longer, you can get into dyeing roving yourself with Kool Aid. Just remember to buy the DIET Kool Aid!  You can also dye using Food Colouring (Wiltons makes great colours, $4 each in store), you'll just need to add some white vinegar to the dye bath. 

You'll need:

• undyed wool roving ($9/100g)
• Kool Aid (the kind WITH OUT sugar), OR food colouring (Wiltons $4) & white vinegar
• rubber gloves
• pot & stove, OR pyrex bowl & microwave, OR crockpot
• paper towels 

As an aside, I keep a spray bottle of bleach heavily diluted with water on hand for the final clean-up, and be sure to cover your workspace with newspaper or paper towels. If you have a camping stove this is the perfect activity for the back yard!

As always, you can find us at Knitomatic.com!

Summer Hours!

This is just a quick newsflash to let you know that we've switched over to SUMMER HOURS!  This mean we'll be close on Sundays until after Labour Day. I know, it's sad, but we do it because you don't tend to stick around on the weekends during the summer, which is OK, we should all go outside and play!  Sunday Stitch 'N Bitch shifts over the Saturdays, as do Yarn Swaps.


Additionally, we are making a change to our evening Stitch 'N Bitch, which is moving from 
Thursdays to Wednesdays!  


So here are what our hours will now look like:


Mon  11am -6pm
Tues  11am -6pm, Stitch 'N Bitch 12pm to 5pm
Wed  11am to 8pm, Stitch 'N Bitch 5pm to 8pm
Thurs  11am 11am -6pm
Fri  11am -6pm
Sat  11am -6pm, Stitch 'N Bitch 1pm to 4pm
Sun  CLOSED

As always, you can find us at Knitomatic.com!

Projects to Keep Little Hands Busy: Part 1

Kids Knitting by Melanie Falick ~ $20

Kids Knitting is the best knitting book I've ever come across for children. I know several kids who've actually taught themselves how to knit using this book, and also I use the instructions to teach adults. The projects are what makes this book indispensable. The patterns are fun things kids want to make, they are easy for kids to accomplish, and are written in a way that kids can understand and follow. Kids Knitting gets 5 Stars from me, which is why I put it in our Knit-O-Matic Kids Knitting Kits ($38). 

The materials we suggest for Kids are:

• Bulky weight yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky $10 or Berroco Comfort Chunky $7
• Needles to match: 6.5mm or 7mm  plastic needles $6
• Jumbo Darning Needles $5.20 

As always, you can find us at Knitomatic.com!

60 Quick Baby Knits

60 Quick Baby Knits $21.95

What a great idea!  This book compiles 60 great patterns for babies using the same versatile, soft, affordable, and washable yarn - Cascade 220 Superwash. The yarn comes with PLENTY of yardage (200m fpr 100g) and costs a very reasonable $10. And as for the patterns, there's lots to choose from: sweaters, blankets, hats, slippers, leg warmers, dresses, jumpers, mittens, and socks. The skill levels are varied, as are the aesthetics, so there's something there for everyone. 

Color Square Blanket

Garter Stitch Jacket

Smock Dress

As always, you can find us at Knitomatic.com!

Heel from Soak!

Heel - Spearmint

Heel - Scentless

Heel - Cucumber

Heel Cream from Soak ~ $10

New Heel is wonderful new cream developed by Soak. Soak knows how to treat hand-knits & delicates, and their new cream was created specifically for feet that wear hand-made socks. It's nourishing without being heavy, and absorbs quickly into the skin, so it doesn't leave a residue on precious hand knits.  I particularly love using Heel on my hands, because it soaks in quickly, making it easy for me to keep on knitting/crocheting/felting/typing. 

I fell head over Heel last month at the DKC Knitters Frolic, where I spent a really fun day next to Jacqueline at Soak.  They say the most popular scent is Cucumber, which flies at the trade shows, and almost sold out at the Frolic. My fave is Peppermint, which has a light, natural scent but doesn't get tingly like most mint creams. The most interesting one is Spearmint - it's really cool, it smells like gum! And of course, they also make a Scentless option in case you want your feet to smell their footiest.  

Not sure which to choose? Not ready to commit? That's ok, come on over to Knit-O-Matic and try them on! 

As always, you can find us at Knitomatic.com!