We Knit Hats & Scarves Mostly

Lois' dickey from Iceland

Lois brought some beautiful treasures to share. She found a knit/crochet dickey she got in Iceland in shades of white and gray, something warm and nice to wear on cold days. She showed us a couple of hats she’d been working on.

hat by Lois

hats from same yarn, different results!

The hats made from the same yarn (I’m sorry, it’s not such a great photo) turned out very different. One looks to be striped, while the other has more of a “shifting sands” color pattern. Gorgeous pastel colors in these. Lois also brought along a fascinating knitting book she got at the BYU bookstore about 20 years ago. We were in awe of the beautiful sweaters and vests shown on page after delicious page.

Teresa's cabled scarf

Teresa was working on a turquoise cabled scarf, which will progress to having two narrow brown sections on either side. Lovely intricate cable pattern!

Ethel and ruffle scarf

Ethel worked on her sparkly midnight-blue ruffle scarf. She also brought some patterns she found on a NEW free web site, DROPS, a Norwegian site produced by Garn Studio. She played around with some possible Tunisian Crochet, but we won’t call it that yet…more research needed into Tunisian!

a swatch of mystery stitch

Drops pattern

Tiffany came and spent some time working on the afghan. This new block is in a basketweave stitch.

basketweave block

We talked about our adventures in Pinterest, a whole new art form that is taking up residence in our creative virtual workspaces.

Tiffany and masterpeice-in-the-making

Did you realize it’s National Spinning and Weaving Week? Check out the Handweavers Guild of America, Inc. Website! Yarnworks is having a “spin-in” Saturday in their courtyard from 10:30 AM to whenever it’s over; so you can bring your wheel and fleece to spin, and maybe a chair, and maybe lunch.

I finished another version of the Simply Knitting slouchy beret, in orange and blue. This yarn is also from Iceland, 100% wool called Lopi; I think I bought it at Yarnworks.

Gator slouchy beret

back view of beret

Too bad the gators got trounced big-time by Alabama. I’m in the middle of another gator slouchy beret, using the Hogtown colorway I bought from Haldecraft’s etsy store, in worsted weight. Some of my rabid fan friends do not advocate wearing anything new, even if it is orange and blue, if the gators are losing. Just go with the tried and true fan get-up you’ve worn before, when the gators won, like your old t-shirt and ball cap you wore in 2006 and 2008; don’t try to jinx it with a new, unknown talisman that is untested.

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Finishing up Two Projects

Ah! Knitting night on the first week of the new school year! Only Tina and I met, but we had a good evening. She bound off the I-cord and began sewing it together, preparing to be felted.

Tina's I-cord hotpad

Tina was able to make a trip to IKEA in Orlando, and found some trivets there in a compatible green color, to match up with the knitted one she made. 🙂
I worked on a new bulky collar, which I’ll show next time. But meanwhile, I finished the beret, thanks to Ethel’s redirection on the brim. I re-did the horizontal garter-stitch border, which was a grievous misinterpretation of the instructions, with 4 vertical garter stitches all the way around. Much better! I can actually get it onto my head.

"She wore a raspberry beret..."

This is the Yorkshire Tweed beret from One Skein Wonders but I knitted it in an Australian tweed yarn, very primo in my tactile opinion! Don’t judge me as one of those “dilettante” knitters Debbie Stoller characterizes in her book Stitch N Bitch! I love that book. I read it at least once a week, every week. Usually if I’m working on some pattern from another source, and I need clarification, I look it up in SNB and then I am able to grasp the concept. Thank you, Debbie Stoller!
ETHEL! Can you hear me through cyberspace?
She had hand surgery yesterday! This is what she emailed to me prior to the surgery:
With the new splint, I can knit nearly up to speed -well, sort of – and I don’t have to use those nasty long, long ones either. I have a feeling I will be in a world of pain for several days after the doc gets his hands on me. sigh This to shall pass.
May the angels of regeneration knit your wounds as you peacefully sleep!

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Alpaca, cotton, ribbon and woolly stuff

Traveling in Polk County, FL, I barely made it home for Wednesday Night Knitting. We had all been busy this week! Here are some of our stories…

Ethel's purchases from Knit!

Ethel visited Knit! in Longwood last week and got some great new fibers to play with, including a soft gray alpaca with a bit of pink in it.

Ethel and Bunty

Ethel has already started on Bunty Bunny by Debbie Birkin. Meanwhile, she finished the ruffled scarf with 2 3/4 skeins
Ethel finished the dead fish hat,too–

Fishy!

Tatting too

She found some tatting paraphernalia AND a great online tutorial, so that I, too, can learn to tat like my friends already do! Some day–I’m not ready yet. I’m not worthy yet! Next on Ethel’s lengthy project list came another face cloth, which she almost finished on site.

A finished cloth, with one in progress

Tina also worked on a Sugar and Cream cotton face cloth, and almost finished it as the evening progressed. Ethel discovered that Tina can really knit without a loom, and she does so in the Continental Style. Who knew?

Tina and wash cloth

Lois modeled some of the many chapeaux she has been creating for some lucky girls she knows.

Lois and mohair beret

Elderberry beret

Ethel modeling another of Lois's hats

Lois's hat for herself

This is what Jenn finished during the week

I finally finished the Yarn Bee Fire Orange monstrosity, which was supposed to be a mindless romp into busy-ness to keep me in practice. I have plans for the orange mess–which is an orange yarn with flecks of blue, does that strike a chord with the local gator fans? I will be updating it next week. As I made my way around Polk County, I dropped in on a wonderful shop called the Yarn Basket in Winter Haven and met Elsa, the proprietor. She warmed up to me as if we’d been friends for years, and I filed away many mental notes, since I go down that way rather often to visit. Check out one of Yarn Basket’s many Youtube videos by Caysea and get an idea of the camaraderie of that place! I was intrigued by the Rozetti Tundra ribbon-like yarn and how it knits up into a ruffly confection. Elsa gave me a lesson on the spot and started me out on a scarf (which of course included another set of bamboo needles in size 8 so now I have 3 or 4 sets of size 8). The Tundra came in a skein that she said must be re-wound into a ball. “Rolled” was her term, not wound. She had this contraption that aids in winding and rolling, called a SWIFT.

Swift at Yarn Basket

She got me started, then as she breezed by to observe, called out, “Roll it! you’re winding it!” “Ooops!” It was so easy to go from rolling to winding, I didn’t even realize I had crossed a line there…

Progress on the Tundra scarf

See that little white length of yarn in the scarf? That is Elsa’s recommendation, a “lifeline” that you re-thread every 9 or so rows, so that if you have to undo, you can go back to the line that you know is correct; if you drop a stitch in the Tundra, it will unravel the whole thing.

Yarn I found in my travels

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Knit Knite Party Projects

Wednesday knitters stayed inside in the A/C while heat lightning flashed and thunder rumbled outside; the temperature got up to 100 degrees in Gainesville yesterday! Ethel braved the elements and got us a snack at the Farmer’s Market –French sorrel leaves, to go along with the watermelon cubes she brought.

watermelon cubes and French sorrel leaves

The leaves had a bright, lemony taste; very refreshing!
Meanwhile, we worked on some new and old projects. Lois worked on her beret from this book:

Lois's hat inspiration

pattern for beret

in a burgundy wool.

Lois and beret in progress

Ethel demonstrated her progress on the Fishy project…

Ethel and Fishy, so far

Ethel's frilly scarf

Ethel worked on a ruffled scarf but had to stop and get more of the carnival-colored yarn–don’t you hate it when you run out?

Turkish woolly

Ethel also finished two hemp washcloth squares, very primo with size 3 needles in seed stitch and double seed stitch.

hemp face cloths

. The rough, luxurious hemp blend and bobbly stitch has a wonderful exfoliating effect!

I worked on a couple of projects from One Skein Wonders to give me some practice and use up some odd balls in the stash. One was a baby hat in a Plymouth Heaven Lite nylon/polyester yarn, and another was the Fillippi scarf in a rib knit with ruffled edges, using a Patons Shetland bulky wool.

baby hat on creepy doll model

Fillippi scarf

After everyone left, the cats were relieved to be set free from their porch prison, where the heat lightning was probably very unnerving. They had a new toy fishing pole with a catnip mouse attached that has a supposed “real-feel” mouse squeak, so they were going berserk.

Cat-demonium

Mrrrow!

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