No Finishing (Almost) Knitting

First, thank you to all who have supported me in this time of loss. It's been exhausting, what with a new job, extra training for my very part time water fitness teaching. I am surviving, barely. But onto the knitting!

I love Elizabeth Zimmermann. The woman was a genius, and my only regret is that only recently did I find her books and start into her wonderful world. I can't figure out how, having knit for so long, I managed to miss her.

So, I've been plugging away at a sweater for afghans for afghans for a while. I used her percentage system, and while the first one I did came out a bit squirrly, this one is going beautifully. You knit bottom up, in the round, do the sleeves (which I did at the same time on two circulars, so that they would match for once), connect it all together for the yoke. Brilliant, the woman was brilliant!

I changed the bottom ribbing from this


to this




because the ribbing didn't go with this yoke that I created (notes on this are on my Ravelry project page):



I have to say that I really, really like how this turned out, and since I'm not a yoke-sweater kind of girl, this is saying a lot!

When you cast off this sweater, the best part is that it looks like a sweater! The only "seams" are a total of two small sets of stitches to graft at the underarms:



and then all I have left is weaving in ends (yes, some of it occured in the knitting, but not all of it).

Next up, a sweater for my little cousin it's Ariann (ravelry link) from Chic Knits in Berrocco's Ultra Alpac. I knit her sister Allison a sweater for her birthday, and now it's time for Rachel to get one. She picked this pattern out of three cardigan patterns that I gave her to choose. I may make one for myself after I finish hers -- it's cute! Now I have to get her on the phone to find out her bust measurement to know what size to make...20 somethings can be hard to reach. Anybody know how to text?

The other project is part of the Ravelympics -- I'm captain of the Afghans for Afghans team, and I'm entered in the sweater sprint with another sweater for Afghans for Afghans -- I got some wool superwash when I was down in LA on one of my trips at the San Marino store A Stitch in Time.) I think this one will be a top-down raglan cardigan in the round.

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!