Saturday, November 29, 2008

The First Gathering:SIT AND KNIT


Tonight was a momentous occasion, we had our first Sit and Knit at the church offices. It was so much fun. We had a great turn out of 12 gals, some great soup and many stitches knit. People took turns playing with Baby Yaya (my nickname for my youngest son).....At one point he was 'sans clothes' so his chubby-ness was a thing of beauty.

We met at Crosswater Church offices in the conference room. General consensus is that we should meet some where larger. We have a church with great facilities that is an option and then also the conference room of the City of Sultan. Downtown Sultan is a wild place, sort of tongue in cheek, so we're not sure we wanna be down there during party hours. Live and learn, it was a pleasure to use the church offices though. I long had drooled over that location for a cafe or whatever, it's a beautiful building. I really enjoyed having our gathering there partly for that reason.

So we will meet, Lord willing the last Saturday of the month like clockwork. I will possibly work in a midweek meeting as my schedule allows. I might concentrate more on that during the spring and summer. This way I don't have homeschool taking up most of my good braincells.

My sweet knitting compeer, Gretchen and my lovely mom, Bev were such a great help to me tonight. I would not have facilitated this without you Gretchen, if you are reading this. I know I would have chickened out. I love you.........Gretchen brought homemade/man-made thanksgiving turkey soup and a scrumptious pumpkin cake with creamcheese filling and ganache blankie sealing the entire cake. I cherished every bite.

Knitting that took place, in no particular order:
G: lovely basketweave scarf, in white/cream
C: knit a ipod cozy and then worked on her fantastic baby afghan chunky slate blue and espresso brown
M: learned to knit, great job!
B: left early, we hope to see her next time
L: started a wine colored scarf
L: worked on a lace scarf in turquoise after trying to cast socks on two circulars
S: worked on a cabled baby hat for Baby Yaya, that has turned out too small, will make another and sell this one on etsy. http://www.etsy.com
K: started her tam for her nice man
C: worked and finished and ripped/frogged her hat and then finished it again. great job on that knifty knitter.
GB: held Baby Yaya a lot and started a basket weave scarf sort of while G talked her through it.

We were expecting close to twice the amount of people, I don't know where we would have put everyone, so it's sort of a blessing that we were the size we were. Please stay tuned for the new location, we will grow and we will Sit and Knit together.

I am posting one photo tonight and I'm gonna go play Tetris with my man and have a celebration ale in celebration of a dreamy knitting night with my womenfolk friends.
It was a proper knitting circle. The coffee was slammin' (so I heard) and the plum tea was divine. I bought Starbucks Christmas blend........I need to see if I can get it in decaf......I miss out a lot not having caffeine.

Anyways the photo is of Baby Yaya's hat. It's almost done. I had to rip/frog it tonight to add one more round of cable crossings. It needed one more before I finish it with a 7 point star. Oh and btw, notice it is another fine time of car knitting photographed here. I am particularly loving my new clover stitch markers. $6 for a bunch of rubbery markers in two colors and sizes. G uses them and I am stoked on this purchase. Also, I love knit picks, my mom just got $75 in gift certificates and bought the nickel plated interchangeable set, lucky girl. Have you purchased any knit picks yet? http://www.knitpicks.com please buy their stuff, they have great customer service and replace faulty needles if that is ever your misfortune. Go buy them. They're made in India, so you know they're gonna be AWESOME.

Have you checked out the Podcasts to the right here on knitshanknit? You will love Mark Driscoll. You will learn about the bible and Jesus in a no nonsense way. I love it, I hope you do too. I think he's teaching about marital intimacy right now. Song of Solomon. Woohoo.


Time to go, thanks again to my partner in fiber crime: the giddy knitter: G xo

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Happy Stitches...


Happy November people. Can you believe it's flipping November??? Time for shorter days and evenings of knitting. I try to finish my chores early and retire to the sofa after dinner when possible...right now I should be knitting instead of blogging..........and watching Top Model.

This little dandy is my Manos de Uroguay Dream Swatch...if you would like the pattern, please email me. knitshanknit@comcast.net It's no longer available on the net, but I swiped it and made it a pdf file, saving the original web page. It's a little tricky but quickly becomes mindless knitting heaven.
Entrelac knitting, in a word, loveliness . Please visit:
http://knittyotter.typepad.com/otterknits/2007/03/entrelac_scarf_.html
I have thoroughly enjoyed learning to knit entrelac. I am using washable fibers, Wool Ease and Vanna's Choice by Lion's Brand Yarn because I was making it for someone who needs wash ability. If you do choose to try entrelac, the tutorial on the knitty otter blog is invaluable. Pay attention to her tips page, they make all the difference. Then copy the pattern for the different stages on index cards. You can use paper clips like my knitting sister Gretchen, The Giddy Knitter, does. You slide the paper clips as you go, keep your place in the pattern easily. This is important because there is LOTS O PARTS to the sequences in the different tiers.

My cardigan, MY DREAM CARDIGAN-holla!!! Can I say holla? I'm gonna try. This is a natural undyed charcoal alpaca dreamland. The fiber stays happy whilst knitting, low ply splitting factor. Remember Pancakeandlulu on etsy and go get some. Custom order these fibers because she doesn't always have them listed in her items for sale. I have 3 inches knitted on the raglan. This view is of the front back and sleeve, all the parts of the neckline are set up and knit top down. To make it even more magic, because it's The Magic Raglan pattern, easily googled.......you can work this sweater seamlessly 'in the round'. I am choosing to work it back and forth good ol knit and purl. I have knit this sweater in the round many times. I mark center front usually with a single purl stitch. This creates a steek. You cut your sweater into a cardigan by doing the unthinkable.....cutting the sweater up the steek. You can see sort of this happening on the mason dixon website http://www.masondixonknitting.com This is probably my favority knitting blog.

Anyways, I love how my sweater is turning out. I am actually getting so much done on it. I was on another blog I love, I believe it's http://www.seejayneknit.blogspot.com She has some sweaters on there that she is working on for herself. I was like I wanna get in on that action.
I will post more pictures soon........

Let's end with my perfect baby boy. I love him. He's hungry. I will feed him now. In this photo he is dashing in his mini sized magic raglan sweater. This sweater had a steek knit in with that single center purl stitch. I cut this sweater up the front, picked up button bands and then added a zipper. Love in a sweater, and my little love in a sweater.