I finished one mitten last night. It’s not cute at all, but the key point is — it’s a mitten! I should be able to finish the other one today or early tomorrow and will maybe have time to embellish it a little bit to “cuten” it up. If not, the person will have a very nice pair of mittens to use next time she has to change a tire! ;) I’ll post a picture, but after the Mitten Exchange.
October 14, 2006
October 13, 2006
From Sally — National Knitting Week
October 14th through October 21st is National Knitting Week. I’m sure I don’t have to encourage any of you to celebrate with needles and yarn. Have a great week!
October 12, 2006
From Susan — The Mitten Debacle Continues
Well, THAT didn’t work either! I tried two different patterns from the Folk Mittens book — very cute patterns, but……It’s like Goldilocks and the Three Bears — the first was too small, the second too big. And I was knitting at 9 sts per inch on the things so they were going nowhere fast! I am trying another idea. It seems to be working, so I’ll have something to bring to the MKG meeting and something to post. Unbelievable, really. I spent $15 on the yarn for my mittens, and another $35 on mitten books and extra yarn for the other person’s mittens (that includes my instructor discount!). Not to mention the 50 hours of unproductive knitting time.
I think I’ll pass on the Mitten Exchange next year. 🙁
October 11, 2006
From Susan — Knit Out Announcement
Our knitting companion Deb apparently made the local news during their coverage of Knit Out last Sunday. She has graciously agreed to sign autographs this Thursday at Panera’s before she heads to Hollywood to join the likes of Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz, Kate Hudson and other knitting celebs as they sip spring water, gossip, and knit $500 scarves.
From Susan — Dilemma Part Trois
Well, I’m giving it one more try! “Brenda” recommended a mitten book (thanks for your suggestion), which I did not find at my LYS. Instead I bought the classic “Folk Mittens” by Marcia Lewandowski. I’m trying a pattern from there and we’ll see how it goes. I did not want to knit a stranded mitten, but that is what I am doing. If they turn out, I’ll post a picture :).
October 10, 2006
From Susan — Dilemma Part Deux
Thanks to all who commented about my dilemma. Obviously I’ll have to decide what to do and pretty quickly! I doubt that I will post a picture, though, unless something very drastic changes in the near future.Â
I do want to say in the yarn owner’s defense: the yarn itself is not intrinsically ugly, it’s just that I cannot make anything attractive come off my needles using the yarn.
Your comments did help me sort out the issues, and I think I’ll end up going forward with the yarn and try to make the best of it. Thanks!!
October 9, 2006
From Susan — My Dilemma
Even though I’ve been knitting a long time, there are a number of things I had never knitted until recently. For instance, the socks I entered in the fair this year were the first I ever made. When I was asked to design a hat for Simply Shetland 2, I had never made one before. The common items that people typically knit have not been part of my repertoire! My knitting preference has always been sweaters. Â
Okay. I’ve never made a pair of mittens — I’ve knitted several pairs of gloves, but not mittens. I’ve never had the desire to make mittens, even when my daughters were small. So what’s the big deal?
I am part of the Mitten Exchange at the Knitters Guild. I took yarn from an anonymous someone to make mittens and someone has my yarn and is making me mittens. The mittens I am making are absolutely hideous.  I would not wear them to change a tire. They are UGLY! Part of it is the yarn and part of it is me. I’ll own up to my share of the problem, but that does not change the reality of the situation — they are UGLY!  I have spent hours and hours trying to make them look good, but they just don’t. So I am thinking of buying replacement yarn and giving it to the person with a note of apology. OR, could I replace her yarn and give her mittens out of different yarn?  I don’t know what else to do. They are embarrassing!!
It’s not like I haven’t had my share of failed knitting projects — I’ve had quite a few. But in those cases, I just stuffed them in a bag to be tossed out at a later date. In this case, I have made a commitment to someone else. Someone out there is expecting a special pair of mittens next week.
What would you do? Should I buy more yarn and/or make her mittens out of something else?
October 8, 2006
From Susan — Knit Out in Review
Knit Out 2006 is history and what a fun day it was!! As Patsy Fisk (the main organizer) put it, on a scale from 1 to 10 it was an eleven! Patsy worked tirelessly to make the event a success. Brookdale staff went out of their way to be gracious and accommodating. The rotunda has a huge dome which brought in a lot of natural light. There was a lot of foot traffic and many curious passers by.Â
Most of my pictures did not turn out, but here are a couple more:
This is a picture of the Yarn Garage Booth. They were the only shop that brought their wares, and I do think other shops made a mistake by not having a presence at the event. They had so much fun stuff to look at and buy. Very creative people.
There were fashion shows on the hour and thank goodness Lori Ihnen took the reins and handled that part of the program. Here is Lori modelling Sally’s Debbie Bliss “Lara” cardigan:
It looked great on Lori — she added the knitted flower. The coral color of the shell she was wearing made the Lara cardigan pop. Very nice! You may know Lori’s name because she is a published author and knitting designer.Â
I don’t have her book (yet) but I know it is wonderful. I’ve seen the trunk show.
Emily M. of our Thursdays at Four knitting group won the fastest knitter contest — way to go, Emily!! She won a free Knitters Guild membership. Her “picker” opponent was a very young and talented girl named Maddy. She may have been all of ten years old, but she beat out the other pickers! She was thrashed by Emily in the stockinette round, however. Good job, Maddy — maybe work on your purling for next year.
Other Thursdays at Four attendees included Birthday Girl Linda, Deb, Lynne, Mary, Idonis, Barb, and Deirdre — I hope I did not leave anyone out :(. We were also joined by my St. Paul knitting peeps: Julie, Mary and Marilyn. Plus many other familiar faces, old friends and new. It was a wonderful day of networking and basking in the warmth of the knitting community. Wow!Â
See you next year!!
October 7, 2006
From Susan — Countdown to Knit Out
Just one last reminder about Knit Out! Hope to see you there! Brookdale Mall from 11 am to 3 pm.
October 6, 2006
From Sally — Answers to some questions
Hi. I’m responding to some questions posted below. Ali asked:
“I can see that the provisional cast on on the sides would be a great improvement when it comes to the side seams. The jacket I did had shaping on the sides as well, so there were multiple cast-ons. I’ve yet to tackle the provisonal cast-on but want to try it. Would it work when you have a staggered edge rather than a straight one? Seems you might end up with a whole lot of loose ends, losing the advantage of the better seaming.â€
You’re right – the provisional cast on works better if you aren’t doing multiple cast ons (for shaping), unless you want to cast on all of the stitches at once and then “activate†them according to the instructions (the cast on numbers) using short rows. You will end up with a bulky and awkward seam if you do it the way that Debbie Bliss suggest, esp. if the pattern is using a heavier yarn. I know this from experience. I knit her Lara sweater following the original instructions (except for the way the collar was done; I didn’t want a seam in the middle of the collar). I regret having done it that way because the seam is unattractive and I don’t think that the underarm shaping (meant to give more of the feel of a fitted sleeve) added all that much. It certainly wasn’t worth the seam issue to me. So I would either forego the staggered cast on and cast on all of the necessary stitches at once or cast them all on at once and use short rows to get the desired shaping. (That way you still get the benefits of the provisional cast on.)
Here is the Lara sweater I’m talking about. (Not a photo of mine; mine is in Minnesota with Susan because I asked her if she could do something to make the seam more attractive!
My favorite provisional cast on is the one using a crochet hook that allows you to place loops on your knitting needle. Here are some illustrated instructions:
Crochet cast on I crochet a few loops before crocheting over the knitting needle, however. I find it easier to get going that way. Once I have the number of stitches I need, I crochet a few extra loops at the end also.
Note: I answered this question assuming you were talking about increases right at the sleeve/body join. If you are talking about staggered increases to give some kind of waist shaping, you could still use a provisional cast on and short row or you might possibly use a provisional cast on and some decreases. I’d have to see the pattern you’re talking about; I’m not familiar with her garter stitch jacket.
Ali also asked:
“Can you explain to me about the Koigu yarn and how that works to track increases?â€
It’s simple. I take a length of waste yarn (in the case of my Nina sweater it was some leftover Koigu). Each time I do an increase, I “lay†the yarn between two stitches further into the row so that the waste yarn gets knitted in to the garment. It helps me keep track of how many total increases I’ve done and the spacing is obvious enough that it makes counting the rows in between increases easier. When I don’t need it any more, it pulls out easily.
And Carrie — I forgot, in my comment to your comment, to answer you about the length of the the Nina sweater. I am hoping mine will now be about 28-29″ long after blocking.
