June 15, 2006
From Susan — The Universe is Turned on Its Head
My daughter was knitting the other day and said, “I can’t believe it! I’m knitting and you’re not.” She was stunned that I was sitting there and not knitting — this never happens.Â
Laura has become one of my most consistent knitting peeps. She was bringing her knitting everywhere and was even knitting in the car. Woo Hoo! She was working on a cute felted bag. Here are some pics of the project that I am very proud to display:
And here it is drying after being felted:
The tape measure kind of shows the scale. It shrunk up a great deal obviously. She used a pretty shade of Cascade 220 in a triple colorway: pale pink, pale lavendar and medium lavendar. I wasn’t sure what the color would look like felted, but it’s very pretty. She will add some embellishments, maybe beads or ribbon. The pattern is from Two Old Bags — the Body Hugging Flat Purse. I made this purse in a soft green and am knitting one in pink for my younger daughter. It is perfect soccer game knitting because you just knit in the round for 80 rounds — no looking or thinking required.
June 14, 2006
From Sally — Another Reason to Buy Extra Yarn
Just the other day, I posted about why it’s important to buy extra yarn and I gave some reasons why. Well, I have another one. Just barely into my third skein of yarn on my Icarus Shawl, I have already encountered three knots. It’s unusual in my experience for this particular yarn; I’ve knit literally thousands of yards of Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze without ever finding a knot. So, finding knots in the yarn is annoying but something easy enough to deal with except . . . After one of the knots, it wasn’t the same yarn. I’m not kidding. It changed color. The fuzzy grey, instead of being plied with grey, was wrapped around black. I pulled out a number of yards before I found another knot. At that point, the color changed back to what it was supposed to be. Say what?
That’s a new one on me.
From Susan — Ballerina
Last evening I taught a knitting class at Amazing Threads in Maple Grove — beginning lace. It was fun. It was the first of my classes to “go” since January (other than the all-day Yarnover event in April). I’ve heard that from other shops and teachers — that classes are not filling like they used to. Any thoughts out there as to why?? I know there are knitters out there — where are they?
I stayed at Amazing Threads for a little while to finish knitting the right sleeve of Ballerina. When I got home I did a 3-needle bind off to join the sleeve seam. I tried it on and the sleeves are about 5 inches too short, and I already lengthened them 2″. You’re supposed to pick up along the bottom edge of the sleeve and knit a garter stitch band, which is meant to add a couple of inches, but mine is going to have to be a lot wider than the design shows. After putzing with Ballerina, it was too late to bind off the mega sts on Sunrise — I hope to get to that tonight.
June 13, 2006
From Susan — A Comment
Someone asked in a comment if I planned on modelling Sunrise when it is finished. I think I can safely speak for both Sally and myself when I say that we will NOT be modelling any of our completed fashions. There are many blogs out there where people show off their beautiful creations by modelling them. This is not one of those blogs. It’s not that Sally and I are hideous or deformed, but I am not photogenic and do not feel the need to prove it publicly in an ongoing way!!
At the Knitters Guild “Knit Out” event held in October, we have fashion shows where volunteers model the sweaters that knitters bring to display. It is funny to see my sweaters on someone else because the sleeves hang down past their hands and they look like they are in mommy’s dress ups. Even then, I do not model my stuff.
June 12, 2006
From Sally — Icarus Shawl update
A quick update. I’m through with Chart 1, which means I’ve finished all of the main body of the shawl. I’ve done a few rows of Chart 2. There isn’t enough of the lace border to warrant a photograph yet; I haven’t gotten far enough. I’m about to finish up my second ball of yarn and start on a third; as usual, the yarn starts being eaten up quickly once you reach a critical mass of stitches. I’ll put up a progress photo as soon as there is something to see.
From Susan — Brief Sunrise Circle Update
I know a lot of people have had difficulty with the sizing of this jacket, but mine fits me perfectly! That is a great feeling! I am still plodding along with my 500++ sts on the combined facing. It is going slowly, but hopefully it will be worth it. TTFN* — I must go knit.
*ta ta for now
June 11, 2006
From Susan — WWKIP Update (and Sunrise Update)
Yesterday was World Wide Knit in Public Day, as I mentioned a couple of days ago. I did make it to Barnes & Noble in Blaine to meet up with Mary and her knitting pals, Tessa, Becky, and Emily — very nice young women. A few of MY knitting pals also showed up: Marilyn, her daughter, Nicole, Julie, and Emily. My oldest daughter, Laura, came with me with her current knitting project. It was a lot of fun. Mary et al are just starting out on their knitting journey.  Some of the rest of us have “been on the road” awhile! It was fun to share our love of knitting and help out some of the newbies as they interpreted the sometimes confusing world of knitting patterns. I’ll be there next year, Mary!
I bought this magazine at B&N because of the pattern for the sheep puppets — I do not spin and do not plan on ever learning. I only have time for knitting.
Are these the cutest things you’ve ever seen? I think you could substitute fair isle weight shetland.
Sunrise is setting: I am finishing Sunrise. What intrigued me about this pattern was the possibility that the entire outer perimeter could be handled as one big circle, instead of working it in pieces — neck, lower back edge, front half circles. So, I decided to do an I-cord bind off around the entire perimeter (instead of a purl turning row as shown) and then I will pick up the facing and knit it in one piece in the round. To do this, I’ll either need several sets of circular needles, which I own but probably can’t find, or buy one really long needle. I had been thinking that the bottom back hem did not need a facing, but I think I’ll go ahead and do it to prevent curling. The sleeves will not get a facing.Â
This in-progess view shows the right front I-cord bind off completed. The bottom back edge is also finished. There is a way to do an i-cord bind off and keep live sts so you can keep knitting. It was not worth the trouble here and does not turn out as well anyway. As you can see, this is a fairly slow process, so I doubt I’ll get it done today. Button shopping is next 🙁
June 10, 2006
From Sally — How Much Yarn Is Enough?
Well, if you’ve seen my stash, apparently there is never enough yarn. And because the store I’ve worked at part-time for a number of years is moving to a web-based only operation, I’ve been picking up some bargains and increasing my already embarrassingly large stash.
But that’s not what I’m talking about today. I’m talking about how much yarn is enough for whatever project it is you have in mind. I thought about that today because I stopped by Ye Olde And Soon To Be No More Yarn Shoppe. It was my day off, but they were very busy and so I offered to help a couple of customers. One of them was trying to figure out how much yarn she needed for a project. She didn’t have a pattern in mind. I gave her a rough idea and advised her (especially since the yarn was 40% off) to pick up one or two extra skeins to be on the safe side. She gave me the look I give to cashiers at electronics stores who are trying to persuade me to buy the extended warranty. I felt like explaining that I don’t work on commission. But I didn’t.
The thing is — it’s cheaper to end up with an extra skein of yarn than it is to knit 90% of a garment and run out. If you are following a pattern, you are trying to match the gauge of whoever designed or test knitted it. It’s an inexact science at best. You may want to knit a gauge swatch. Was that accounted for in the yarn amount given? Probably not. Maybe your stitch gauge matches but your row gauge is tighter. If you need to knit extra rows to get the same length, you’ll use more yarn. Maybe you’ll decide to make a small change to the pattern that uses more yarn (e.g., lengthening the sleeves or changing the collar). Maybe you hold or throw your yarn differently. Maybe the designer counted wrong. Maybe there was a typo.
If you don’t have a pattern in mind, then it’s even trickier. Patterns with lots of cables or textured stitches require more yarn. Small changes in imagined style or size can greatly affect how much yardage you need to get a particular result.
I could go on and on, but I won’t. I’ll just tell you: buy extra yarn. It’s worth every penny.
June 9, 2006
From Susan — Thursdays are Great
I really had fun last night with my knitting peeps. What a crew! We laughed so hard we had tears running down our cheeks. I would describe the conversation but, believe me, you had to be there. Even a few moments later we could not figure out what was so darn funny. But I truly enjoyed myself.
Linda was working on a very cute “ponchette” designed by Hemp for Knitting. BTW, this is NOT a picture of Linda.
Linda is not using their yarn, but rather a linen-polyester mix which is absolutely beautiful and in keeping with the natural look of the hemp design. I am highly tempted to make this because it is not totally like a poncho — it’s a little bit more stylish.
I am really looking forward to tomorrow and the WWKIP event in Blaine. I would love to see others of you there, though it will be tough to coordinate everyone’s busy schedules. I will most likely arrive somewhere between 1 and 2 pm. And stay until my daughter makes me leave! Til then, happy knitting.
PS — Julie mentioned Stormcloud Trading in St. Paul (on Minnehaha and Snelling) for beads and purse frames.  I did in fact buy the frames for both the black beaded purse and the brown/copper version at Stormcloud. They have a huge selection of beads and very good prices. They have a few purse frames behind the counter. If you want a wide assortment you can look online and find quite a few. Â
