What I'm working on. Ezra's cabled hat. Oooo Pit 10 Az 0.... I don't know who I'm cheering for.....Kevin is voting for the Cardinals. Go Az I guess! I watch football to knit. This is no mystery I have made this public knowledge before.

Live Blog, Well, I'm A Little Late..........Hello

4:14pm
On my favorite site Mason Dixon Knitting, they have live blogging events. So, because I wanna be like them.......here I am. I am a little mad because I'm late. We were playing Halo 3 on xbox live with friends. I thought the game started at 6pm. I was misinformed.

Hope you're enjoying the game.

I finished Mousy the Amigurimi last night at the Sit and Knit.......

Sit and Knit:January

Hello All,
January Sit and Knit is almost here. It's this Saturday, January 31st at 4pm. Pre-knitters please come at 4pm with size 10 needles and a bulkier yarn. Or, whatever supplies you have around the house. We'll make it work. The Sit and Knit goes from 4-10pm. We might hang out longer if we nightowls are up for it.

We are meeting at my house this time. Please rsvp and I will send you directions.
knitshanknit@comcast.net

Bring: food to share (would you like to bring a main dish so we can eat something substantial and not just chocolate?)
Needles, yarn, projects. Size 10 needles and bulky yarn for beginners.
A big pillow or folding chair. I think there will be quite a few of us this time. We'll be happy together.

***Charity Knitting Opps*** I will be discussing some altruistic (thanks Gretchen for the adjective) knitting opportunities for us to ponder. If you can't wait till Saturday, please email me and I'll send you the three opportunities I have.

Sit and Knit is a time to do exactly that. We are all so busy in our day to day lives. Let's make time, yes make time, to sit, talk, and work on something with our hands. Proverbs 31 in the bible talks about a virtuous woman who was very crafty indeed. She worked with fiber and fabric, a resourceful and steady woman. If you are a hand crafter like me it's fun to read the industrious woman's description. Check it out.

I look forward to sharing stitches with you. Being in the present and just hanging out.

...shan...

Meet Wasabi...

Here's my sweet son and his knitted friend...

This is the infamous Wasabi. He is a knit monkey. Sort of like a sock monkey, but not made of socks. He is handknit in alpaca wool. His face plate and tail have some lambs wool in them. Sage, his happy new owner is tickled to have his monkey finally, it took me two years I think to finish him. Not because I worked on him continuously, but because I finished him once, did not like how he turned out. I completely unstuffed him, due to the white poly fiber peeking through. I redesigned his head, because I HATED the way the first head turned out. Too cartoon like. So here he is, in his glory.

Sheesh...

GAUGE GAUGE GAUGE.....I knit this hat for Ezra, didn't *know* that cables would pull differently, so I knit my gauge straight up stocking-knit stitch. I learned an important lesson about cables. I snapped this pic of Ezra with his hershey kiss cabled hat to engrave in my mind that I need to work my swatch in the stitch pattern I am working, not just the particular yarn and needles. Makes for a cute picture though, eh?

Things are a little hectic here at the Stainer Casa. I did manage to get some photos organized to post on my blog this evening. I guess when I get busy blogging falls off my plate. I set my mind to posting this fine January evening, even if January is almost gone..........

Our homeschool is in full swing and the holidays were blessed. We were snowed in a lot and took an extra long winter break. We even had almost two weeks with Daddy home for the holidays and due to the inclement weather. I am hoping for more snow so that I can do the mother of all snow angels. I did not seize the day and do this. I will go and plop myself down in the snow, that is if we get more. We had about 2 feet of snow at Christmas time.

So, what have I been knitting during December and January? Let me tell you about it with pictures.......Wasabi's head. I had determined to finish him by Christmas. I did not finish him by Christmas, but he is finished! Wasabi is the monkey I started knitting for my oldest son a couple of years ago.
Crazy cable knitting. Easier than it looks...you just have to follow the directions and learn a few maneuvers. I completed a swatch of this cable. I did have to take 10 rows out and start again. I will post of picture of the completed project.
My lovely son Eli and his knitting project. He was so cute knitting this day......


Amigurumi. My new love. My nephew Israel holding his little penguin I crochet for him. Try out some of the amigurumi patterns on ravelry.com
A knit ball, fun times , easy, breezy...........I felted it and put a bell inside. Stuffing it with wool fleece. I gave it to my niece Bella, the beautiful.

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

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.