Knitting from the Heart

Knitters develop great bonds, and when one of them finds herself carrying a burden, knitters want to help.

Our friend Judy from Knit Night at Marin Fiber Arts got a horrible call last Saturday - her sister, who had been recovering at home from surgery, collapsed suddenly, and was pronounced dead at the hospital after paramedics attempted to revive her. She is being a good sister and seeing to many details and supporting her brother-in-law and nieces in the middle of this awful situation.

Last night, we began on a project for Judy to give her upon her return. I cannot say what it is, or it will spoil the surprise, but suffice it to say that we are glad to be doing just a little something to ease our friend's broken heart.

Knitting Balance

A couple of months ago, Kelley of the Knitpicks podcast talked about having a variety of projects going at the same time. One that is portable,one that is very simple for knit gatherings, and the project that you keep at home and work on by yourself.

Here is my current knit gathering project, which started life as a mitered square blanket,but is now a mitered square edged blanket:



And I'm beginning the Hanami stole in some beautiful Malabrigo lace. The basketweave pattern was not happening. Now, could it be that I was tempting fate by: a. not using stitch markers on an unfamiliar charted lace pattern; b. going down a needle size with lace yarn, and c. not skeining the lace-weight but putting it over my knees because I wanted to start NOW? Yeah, doh. I got back on the sanity train, put away the lace weight,got out some cotton that someone gave me from a UFO in worsted weight, broke out the size 7 needles, and got this:



And I didn't use stitch markers. I can be stubborn that way. I decided to do the full pattern twice,and I think it'll turn into a market bag! Last night I skeined the lace yarn without a swift or a ball-winder (a pain!) and got back to swatching in Size 3 needles (MUCH better):



Yeah, those are stitch markers in there. I do learn, just slowly!
Now I need to go buy the seed beads for the cast on!

The Circle of Knitting LIfe

The cycle of knitting goes this way: a project is planning and dreamed of, materials acquired or purchased, swatches are made (right, all the time, right?) the project, if successful, reaches completion, including any particular needed accessories, such as belts and buttons. Hopefully, celebration occurs.

I'm at two very points this week. I've got a wonderful FO -- the Juliaca cardigan sweater (which amazingly is the only one in all of Ravelry). I've been wearing it all week. More details below. At the same time, I was dreaming and planning new projects. Two swatches are now done. I have measurements, and now the projects can begin. I'm at both ends!

Onto the Juliaca sweater. It looks good off:



It looks good on:



I also scored some incredible buttons at Stitches West:



These are from a small South African company called Incomparable Buttons. The vendor, who doesn't have a website (darn!) is Nifty Thrifty Dry Goods. I loved them, and you can go to the wholesaler's website, the particular ones I got are L375 (such a romantic name).

See how good that button looks on the sweater?



I am very happy.

At the other end of Knitting Life, two eggs are about to hatch. The one for me is the Corset by Annie Modesitt in some beautiful empire silk.

Here's a test swatch, which was hung and weighted with some fashion pins:



Pretty stuff, huh!

The other sweater is the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan from Interweave Spring 2008. My LYS had a great sale, and I had a gift certificate that took care of part of it, so the whole thing is really quite reasonable. This swatch is perfectly on gauge. The sweater will be done in the darker color, and if I run out of yarn (unlikely, given the size of my cousin), I'll use the lighter color for the button band and tabs.



It has a terrific "hand" and will be just the professional look that my new-to-work cousin needs for her wardrobe.

The Yarn Harlot is a Genius!

Maybe you haven't seen this post of Stephanie Pearl McPhee. She shares a wonderful little technique of crocheting across a piece of knitting, especially useful at the back of the neck when you don't cast off and cast on.

Not only did she share it, she also wrote and photographed a whole d@amn tutorial. Seriously, when does she sleep? She produces amazing cable sweaters with no sweat off her back, and the tutorial appears within a few days of the clamour of the blog for MORE DETAILS.

Said tutorial pushed me over the edge. Since I've just finished the Juliaca sweater (I literally sewed on the button yesterday that I bought at Stitches West on Saturday) in which I did not cast off for the neck and collar, I decided that I would see if it works. Now, it was a test to start, because the Harlot showed the technique with stockinette, and I was dealing with 2 by 2 ribbing. Would it work? Would it look ok?

So, here are my photos.

From the inside, it is reasonably neat:



And now for the outside:




Even though it's ribbing, it looks ok! (and it doesn't have to because of the fold of the collar, but isn't it great that it does.)

And now I'm not worried that the sweater is gonna slip down!!!

Stitches Hangover

This is my fifth year attending Stitches. Every other year, I've taken classes as well as go to the Marketplace. There are so many things that I've learned that I haven't had the opportunity to apply, plus, I've bought a ton of books this year, so I decided to just do the marketplace.

Between joining a knit night, discovering the "online" community of knitting, and the buzz of Ravelry, it was a very different experience this year. I went with friends (thanks Leslie and Lisa for the carpooling, so much nicer!), and joined my wonderful pal Liz in the shopping as in years before. For the first year since attending, I had a clue about what is new and interesting.

But the other reality is that I also already own a ton of yarn. My stash is bigger than ever, and I have two great sweaters in my cue for spring/summer, a plentiful amount of sock yarn, etc. The only thing I truly needed were a closure of some kind for my Juliaca cardigan, which was blocked and all but done.

So I enabled my friend Liz (knitcrazy) who bought tons at really great prices. My only fiber purchase was a couple of skeins of Colrain at WEBS because I wanted to test it out with a hat for the Christian Seamens groups.

High and first on the list was checking out the Ravelry booth. Casey, despite being on the third day, was gracious in letting us take our picture with him in front of the Ravatars banner:





And lunchtime was the time to check in with other Knit Nighters, including Lindsay, Judy and Alison, who shared their experiences as well:



And I did find the perfect buttons, thanks to shopping with Liz, who wisely said, "Hey , there are button here, why don't you check it out?" I found the perfect buttons from South Africa. I've sewn on the button (one for now) and it is perfect! Photo to come when I can get someone to take my photo while wearing the sweater.

Today? I'm swatching for the sweaters that come next, and playing with the Colrain. Perfect timing for a stormy day with plenty of TV time thanks to the Oscars!

Travels with Knitting

Well, it has been an extremely busy few weeks, with two major trips. The first one took me to the East Coast, where I managed to go through seven states in eight days. Admittedly, a couple of these were "drive throughs) but still!

The second trip was an amazing trip to Northern Ireland, Ireland, as well as England and Wales. More to come on that experience.

I worked on socks, including this wonderful Kaffe Fassett colorway:



I actually finished one on the first trip, and the second one on the second trip!

Along the way I visited my college roommate Lolly, who taught me to knit continental - for which I am truly grateful. I had sussed out that Stitch DC is the knitting place to go, so I went in the pouring rain and got some beautiful Jade Sapphire 100% cashmere to make a lovely scarf for Lolly:



And I'm totally excited to return home because I was able to finish by Juliaca cardigan.



Since I'm heading to stitches tomorrow, I will be able to find a totally great closure for it, so stay tuned for a real modelling job.

Feline Approval

When I'm knitting, my cats sometimes get involved -- you know, playing with the yarn and the needles, although they are pretty well-behaved most of the time, but seriously, I get a lot of cat curiosity around here:



The best is when I get feline approval, such as here:



and here:





and when it is something specifically for the kitty, the love is very evident!



It is a good feeling!