Gratitude for Knitting

On June 19th, my world changed. In San Jose at a national conference for my church, I received a phone call from my mother, who told me that the police had come to her house to notify her that my brother, Randy, age 56, had died. It was a total shock. We will never know what happened -- the coroner has said that his cause of death is undetermined.

The intervening weeks have been a blur. I have put a lot of miles on the car, flown to Denver and back, and dealt with what I have had the energy to deal with.

Thank goodness for the knitting. My Knitpicks lace sampler kit had finally come, and I wanted to make a shawl for the Afghans for Afghans project. I had started the shawl just before leaving for the conference, and it became my sanity-saver the past few weeks.

It started small,


and grew and grew:



I knit the whole thing in just 3 weeks. It was my prayer for my brother, my mother and me...

I also finished knitting a scarf:



Two easy knits, one of which that I can wear into the future, the other of which that will brighten the world of someone carrying many more burdens than myself.

I thank God for knitting.

Fair Weather Knitting

This year I was inspired to enter some of my knitting by my friend, Judy, who entered items last year and did well. She did well this year too! A baby hat and cardigan:



And Judy also submitted Socks:


and Handspun in a couple of kinds, and a beautiful Tuscany shawl.


To my surprise, my Hanami shawl won the other special awards:


and this mystery item also did well:



Since I'm thinking of submitting this as an original pattern, I must not show a photo!

Many of you know that a family loss has occurred, and I want to thank all the knitters for their support. I will be blogging more about this soon, including about the solace of knitting in times of loss...

The Dye Runneth Over

I like to recycle things, and recycling yarn is really great.

A friend gave me a partially completed sweater that didn't have the pattern. The cotton wasn't very nice, especially for a garment, so I threw away the unfinished pieces (yes, I regret that now that I know you can re-condition yarn), and kept the rest.

The yarn made an appearance on the blog when I used it to learn the basket weave pattern for the Hanami stole. So I decided to knit another side and make it into a market bag.

Cute, huh?



All went well 'til the blocking, when this seemingly undyed cotton showed that the dye had not set at all. Really. The dye kept coming out. I tried adding vinegar, but it didn't really help all that much. You can see the dye running on the handle.




I am glad that this won't need to be washed very often!

Lace Edges - cool!

I decided to teach a class about lace edging. This was a bit of hubris, because I hadn't knit anything but bottom up lace edgings like this:



So, I've had a lot of fun learning the principles of perpendicular knitted lace edges. Great for baby blankets:




And equally terrific for bamboo and silk scarves:



We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

In other news, I submitted two items to the Marin County Fair -- one is the Hanami stole, the other is an item that I designed, and since I'm still thinking of submitting it for publication, I cannot blog about it. :(

Remember, WWKIP is tomorrow. I'll be at Marin Fiber Arts (where the scaffolding in front of the store might actually be a helpful thing finally) Find a public place and knit!

All About the Beads

Back when I did the Hanami stole, it was my first foray into bead knitting. I realize that starting to use beads on lace yarn like this is not the usual way to do it, but that's me. Fortunately, it wasn't a lot of beads!

Then, when I was listening to Ivy's Knit Spirit podcast, I noticed that Earthfaire was a sponsor.

So I checked out the website, and couldn't resist buying this kit -- I find that kits are really, really helpful when I'm learning something new. This kit, shown here:




is very complete, has very lovely crystal beads, all the materials (except the size 0 needles), and even came with a sterling silver clasp for the bracelet!



So, given that there is a bead store a block away from Marin Fiber Arts, I think I may be doing some more bead knitting!

Rocking the Socks

I've been knitting socks for about 6 years. As with a lot of people, I was always intimidated by the tiny needles (although my first sweater was on size 1 and 2 needles!), the double points (I didn't know about bamboo and wood) and the term "turning the heel." In my mind, I imagined that knitting gymnastics were required, and decided that they were not for me.

The first ones I knit were actually baby booties in some DK weight. Then at Stitches I bought "The Purl Stitch" by Sally Melville which had a simple sock pattern and I stumbled into a booth with Mountain Colors and knit some great socks, although on too large needles. and they were easy, so then I branched out and got Folk Socks by Nancy Bush, and Cool Socks, Warm Feet by Lucy Neatby. Warren at Marin Fiber Arts has a great selection of sock yarn, including the amazing Pagewood Farm yarns.

But until a month ago, I had not used Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Socks That Rock." When visiting my friend Liz, we went to Purlescence Yarns, and I bought a skein in "Pebble Beach" which really does look like that beautiful part of the Monterey peninsula.

I knit. Yes, it was verrry, nice. I love the twist, the squishiness, the way it makes my knitting look great without any tugging. So here they are:



and a lovely turned heel:



I am happy sock person!

Babies Got Blankets

Spring has brought two baby blankets across my needles.

The first was a communal project of the Knit Night gals at MFA for our friend, gypsyknitter, aka Tabitha. Amazing squares were knit, and it was my job to knit them together:



And knit up:



You can go here to see read more about the party and fun we had, and here for some great photos!


The other blanket is for Afghans for Afghans, and it has not been completed in time for the May 19th deadline:



Yes, that is Isadora with the enquiring look. It's finally sewn together, and now I have to find some TV time to sew the ends together.